By Climate Central

NOAA’s global temperature analysis for February 2016 indicates it was the hottest February on record with biggest monthly departure ever recorded. 

• The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for February 2016 was the highest for February in the 137-year period of record, 2.18°F above the 20th century average.
• This also means it surpassed the all-time monthly departure record set just two months ago in December 2015 by 0.16°F.
• The 6 highest monthly temperature departures on record have all occurred in the past 6 months.
• February 2016 is the 10th consecutive month that a monthly global temperature record has been broken.
• The average global temperature across land surfaces was 4.16°F above the 20th century average. This is the highest February temperature on record, surpassing the all-time single-month record set in March 2008.

Combined with their analyses from the previous two months, it also indicated that globe had its hottest (Northern Hemisphere) winter on record.

• The winter global temperature was 2.03°F above the 20th century average. This was the hottest winter on record, surpassing the previous record set last year by 0.52°F.
• December 2015–February 2016 also marks the highest 3-month departure from average for any 3-month period on record.
• The globally-averaged temperature across land surfaces was also the highest on record for December–February, 3.47°F above the 20th century average.
• This is the seventh consecutive season in which the globe (land and ocean) was record warm, starting with summer (Jun-Aug) 2014.

 

This originally appeared on Climate Central.