People on Earth have endured the warmest February on record, according to the EU climate change service Copernicus. The air temperature on the earth’s surface averaged 13.54 degrees Celsius, the service said. That is 0.81 degrees more than the average for the reference period from 1991 to 2020 and 0.12 degrees more than in the warmest February recorded so far in 2016. The data used by Copernicus goes back to 1950, but some are also earlier Data available.
This is the ninth month in a row that has been the warmest compared to the respective months of the previous year. “As remarkable as this may seem, it is not really surprising, as the continuous warming of the climate system inevitably leads to new temperature extremes,” said director Carlo Buontempo. The climate reacts to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As long as it is not possible to stabilize these, “we will inevitably be confronted with new global temperature records and their consequences.”
Copernicus had already announced in January that global warming was now for the first time over a period of twelve months (February 2023 to January 2024) on average over 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era. However, that does not mean that the Paris 1.5 degree target has been missed, as longer-term average values are being looked at.
The European Union’s climate change service Copernicus regularly publishes data on surface temperatures, sea ice cover and precipitation. The findings are based on computer-generated analyzes that incorporate billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
