Meteorology and nature - another temperature record has fallen

Temperature records are falling at an alarming rate. February 2024 was the warmest month ever recorded worldwide, thus joining a series of nine consecutive monthly records, with temperatures well above normal in Europe, the European Copernicus Observatory announced. Ocean temperatures, which have been above records for nearly a year, are a major contributor to this extraordinary streak. A new absolute record for all months combined was reached, with 21.06°C recorded in February at the surface of the seas (excluding areas near the poles), according to the European Observatory's monthly bulletin. The past three months have been the warmest on record worldwide, with February becoming one of nine consecutive monthly records, driven by continued greenhouse gas emissions and the El Nino climate phenomenon, according to Copernicus. In its latest monthly bulletin, the European Observatory published a new set of shocking figures: with an average air temperature of 13.54°C, last month was 1.77°C above the average February temperature from 1850- 1900, writes AFP. It is also 0.12°C higher than the previous record for a February, which dates back to 2016. For four days between February 8 and 11, temperatures exceeded pre-industrial levels by as much as 2°C - which however, it does not mean that the upper limit of the Paris Agreement, calculated as an average over several decades, has been reached. In the past 12 months, the world has recorded a temperature 1.56°C warmer than the average climate of the 19th century, a new record. The northern hemisphere winter (December-February) is therefore the warmest in the world, after the three warmest months of autumn and summer. Remarkably warm weather was recorded around the world, from North America to Vietnam, including Morocco and most of South America, but Europe stood out. This winter, in Europe, temperatures were 3.30°C above the normal for the 1991-2020 period, and the situation was even more abnormal in Central and Eastern Europe. The average temperature of the oceans, which cover 70% of the Earth's surface, reached a new record high for all months combined, with 21.06°C recorded in February at the surface of the seas (excluding areas near the poles). This warming is a direct threat to marine life and can reduce the absorption capacity of greenhouse gas emissions in the seas, carbon reservoirs that absorb 90% of excess energy from human activity.