Last month was the warmest February in the modern world, extending the monthly record for the ninth consecutive year, the EU climate service said.
Since June 2023, every month has seen a new record high temperature for that period.
Global sea levels are the hottest on record and Antarctic sea ice has again become extremely low.
Temperatures are still rising due to the El Niño weather phenomenon in the Pacific, but human-caused climate change is the main cause of the warmth.
“It is clear that heat-trapping greenhouse gases are the main culprit,” emphasizes Professor Celeste Saulo, Director-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Carbon dioxide concentrations have reached their highest level in at least two million years and have risen again to record levels over the past year, according to the United Nations climate agency.
According to the EU's Copernicus climate change service, these warming gases helped make February 2024 about 1.77C warmer than in “pre-industrial” times (before humans began burning large quantities of fossil fuels).
This broke the previous record set in 2016 by about 0.12 degrees.
These temperatures have led to extreme heat, particularly in Western Australia, Southeast Asia, southern Africa and South America.