More climate records fall in world’s warmest February

Last month was the world’s warmest February in modern times, the EU’s climate service says, extending the run of monthly records to nine in a row.

Each month since June 2023 has seen new temperature highs for the time of year.

The world’s sea surface is at its hottest on record, while Antarctic sea-ice has again reached extreme lows.

Temperatures are still being boosted by the Pacific’s El Niño weather event, but human-caused climate change is by far the main driver of the warmth.

“Heat-trapping greenhouse gases are unequivocally the main culprit,” stresses Prof Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization.

Carbon dioxide concentrations are at their highest level for at least two million years, according to the UN’s climate body, and increased by near-record levels again over the past year.

Those warming gases helped make February 2024 about 1.77C warmer than “pre-industrial” times – before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels – according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

This breaks the previous record, from 2016, by around 0.12C.

These temperatures saw particularly severe heat afflict western Australia, southeast Asia, southern Africa and South America.