Note the adjectives: ‘Obliterated…record-breaking…hot streak…soaring…climate change-fueled’ …leading to… ‘breaking the old record from 2016 by about an eighth of a degree’. The big build-up followed by the damp squib.
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For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records—with February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.
The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fueled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren’t just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023’s mark and still rising at the end of the month, says Phys.org.
And February, as well the previous two winter months, soared well past the internationally set threshold for long-term warming, Copernicus reported Wednesday.
The last month that didn’t set a record for hottest month was in May 2023 and that was a close third to 2020 and 2016. Copernicus records have fallen regularly from June on.
February 2024 averaged 13.54 degrees Celsius (56.37 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the old record from 2016 by about an eighth of a degree. February was 1.77 degrees Celsius (3.19 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the late 19th century, Copernicus calculated.
Only last December was more above pre-industrial levels for the month than February was.
. . .
This was the warmest winter—December, January and February—by nearly a quarter of a degree, beating 2016, which was also an El Niño year. The three-month period was the most any season has been above pre-industrial levels in Copernicus record keeping, which goes back to 1940.
Full article here.
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
March 7, 2024 at 09:47AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 