February Was World's 9th Consecutive Warmest On Record Month

Lots of red again, this time on the temperatures across
the world in February, relative to long term averages.

NOAA confirmed on Thursday what everybody pretty much knew:  

This year featured the world's hottest February on record. It was the ninth month in a row that turned out to be a record hot month for Earth, this according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

That's quite a trend. I know that El Nino boosted global temperatures. But it wasn't the strongest El Nino ever, that's for sure. Which means climate change almost surely influenced things, which of course isn't exactly shocking news these days. 

Ominously, in February, it seemed the oceans were generally the hottest relative to average. The places on Earth that featured temperatures the furthest above normal were the tropical, equatorial and eastern Atlantic Ocean;  the northern and eastern Indian Ocean and parts of the central Pacific Ocean.

I used the word "ominously" because warm oceans tend to create more powerful hurricanes, stronger non-tropical storms and heavier rain on land. We'll be hearing plenty of news for the rest of this year about intense floods, typhoons, hurricanes and other severe weather. 

On that land, the warmest places relative to 20th century averages were western Europe, eastern and southern Asia, most of South America,  the southern half of Africa and parts of central and eastern North America. 

As always, there were a handful of cool areas, but they were extraordinarily few and far between, as they have been for months. 

The cool spots relative to average were small parts of the the southeastern Pacific Ocean, a little patchy the southwestern Indian Ocean, in around the Koreas, a mini little  patch between Iceland and Greenland.  

Given the fact that December, January and February were each the world's warmest on record, it's obvious that meteorological winter (December 1-February 29) was also the hottest on record. Yes, I know in the southern half of Earth, that period was the hottest summer on record. 

This is one month where everything "matched" globally and locally.  Both United States and Canada had their warmest winter on record, too.  We did, too, here in Vermont. 

With El Nino fading and a likely opposite La Nina looming, our long string of record warm months will probably end soon. 

La Ninas tend to cool the Earth a bit, which is the opposite effect El Nino has.

If recent past history is any guide, the coming months in the next year or two won't be that much cooler. Most of them will probably score in the top five warmest, just as they did during the "cool" La Nina of 2000-2022,

Climate change will keep heating us up unrelentingly. Expect plenty more instances of extreme weather, with or without any kind of El Nino.