Last month was the warmest Feb globally, sea surface temp hits record high: Copernicus C3S

Last month was the warmest February on record globally, while it was the ninth month in a row that a month was the warmest for the respective period of the year, Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has said. 

Besides, the average global sea surface temperature (SST) for February 2024 over 60th parallel longitude, used as a standard diagnostic for climate monitoring, was 21.06°C, the highest for any month, above the previous record of August 2023 (20.98°C). 

The average surface air temperature was 13.54°C, 0.81°C above the 1991-2020 average for February, and 0.12°C above the temperature of the previous warmest February in 2016, said C3S, which is managed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

El Nino weakening

“The month was 1.77°C warmer than an estimate of the February average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period,” said the  organisation.  

The global-average temperature for the past twelve months (March 2023–February 2024) was the highest on record, at 0.68°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.56°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. 

“The daily global average temperature was exceptionally high during the first half of the month, reaching 2°C above the 1850-1900 levels on four consecutive days (8–11 February),” it said.

Though El Niño, which is the main reason for this weather, continued to weaken in the equatorial Pacific, marine air temperatures in general remained at an unusually high level, it said.

The C3S said the average daily SST reached a new absolute high of 21.09°C at the end of February. 

New extremes

Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said in the statement: “February joins the long streak of records of the last few months. 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.  

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

C3S said the 2023-24 winter (Dec-Jan-Feb) was the warmest globally at 0.78°C above the 1991-2020 average. However, the period was wetter than average in parts of northern India, western North America, across Eurasia and Central Asia, as well as over China, Japan, Pakistan, northern and eastern Australia and southern Brazil.

European winter temperature was the second warmest on record, after the winter of 2019-2020, at 1.44°C above the 1991-2020 average, it said.

Significance for India

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said Arctic sea ice extent was 2 per cent below average, not as low as in most recent years, in particular compared to the minimum February extent recorded in 2018 (6 per cent below average). “However, the February 2024 extent is well below the values observed in the 1980s and 1990s,” it said.

Antarctic sea ice reached its annual minimum monthly extent, the third lowest in the satellite data record at 28 per cent below average, not far from the all-time minimum from February 2023 (-33 per cent), it said. 

The findings are significant for India as over 26 per cent of its regions have been affected by drought. During January-February 2024, at least 60 per cent of the country received deficient, large deficient or no rainfall with the situation in the South a cause for worry. 

Though El Nino is expected to dissipate by May by most global weather models, it could still impact weather patterns in the country. The India Meteorological Department has projected above normal maximum temperature for most parts of the country during the March-May period. It has, however, predicted above normal rainfall for March.

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