February was ninth consecutive hottest month on record, say scientists

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) says the earth has experienced its hottest February in history.

In a report released on Wednesday, the organisation said February 2024 was also the ninth consecutive month of record temperatures across the globe.

Global temperatures have been consistently surging since June 2023, and according to C3S, the period from February 2023 to January 2024 marked the first time the earth recorded 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the pre-industrial era.

The report said global sea surface temperatures are also at their highest ever as the average daily sea surface temperature reached a new record of 21.09C at the end of February.

Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, said the warming of the climate system is leading to new temperature extremes, and until it is stabilised, new records will be inevitable.

“February joins the long streak of records of the last few months. As remarkable as this might appear, it is not really surprising as the continuous warming of the climate system inevitably leads to new temperature extremes,” Buontempo said.

“The climate responds to the actual concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, so unless we manage to stabilise those, we will inevitably face new global temperature records and their consequences.”

Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, said there is “no silver bullet or magic fix for climate change”.

“We know what to do: stop burning fossil fuels and replace them with more sustainable, renewable sources of energy. Until we do that, extreme weather events intensified by climate change will continue to destroy lives and livelihoods,” he added.