EU climate service: February 2024 hottest on record

March 7 (UPI) -- The European Commission's weather service on Thursday said February 2024 was the hottest February on record.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said February 2024 was 1.77 degrees Celsius warmer than the February average for the designated pre-industrial reference period of 1850-1900.

Average ERA5 surface air temperatures -- short for the fifth generation of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Atmospheric Reanalysis -- reached 56.37 degrees Fahrenheit, an increase of 0.12 degrees Celsius above the old record set in 2016.

February was also the ninth consecutive month to set heat records for that month of the year.

"February joins the long streak of records of the last few months," Copernicus Director Carlo Buentempo said. "As remarkable as this might appear, it is not really surprising as the continuous warming of the climate system inevitably leads to new temperature extremes."

Buentempo added that work must be done to address the causes of warming.

"The climate responds to the actual concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so, unless we manage to stabilize those, we will inevitably face new global temperature records and their consequences," he said.

Copernicus noted that while El Nino has continued to weaken in the equatorial Pacific, marine air temperatures remained unusually high.

In February, the average global sea surface temperature was 21.06 degrees Celsius, which marked the highest month on record.

It surpassed the previous record set in August 2023 at 20.98 degrees Celsius.

The weather service said the global average temperature for the past 12 months is the warmest on record, currently 0.68 degrees Celsius higher than the 1991-2020 average and 1.56 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.

Temperatures remain above average in northern Siberia, central and northwest North America, most of South America, across Africa and western Australia, according to the Copernicus report.

Last month, Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that January's average surface air temperature was 13.14 degrees Celsius, 0.70 higher than January from 1991-2000.