A combination of strong El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean and human-caused warming drove temperatures in February this year to levels never before seen since records began in 1880, according to new NASA data. The data shows that February had a global average surface temperature of 1.35 degrees Celsius above the 1951 to 1980 average. The 1.35 degree Celsius temperature anomaly in February beat the previous record high departure from average for any month seen in January this year. Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) tweeted the temperature analysis.
According to NASA, the global average surface temperature during January was 1.14 degrees Celsius above average compared to the 1951 to 1980 average.
This means that temperatures in February this year had the largest departure from average of any month in NASA's records since 1880. The previous warmest February was in 1998, which was also a year with an extremely strong El Nino, NASA said.
Normally I don't comment on individual months (too much weather, not enough climate), but last month was special.https://t.co/nALWMlNDcP
— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) March 12, 2016
Updates for February in @NASAGISS temperature analysis. Wow. pic.twitter.com/4YOJLjeZ5h
— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) March 12, 2016