February was unusually cold in Europe but ranked as the fifth-warmest globally since records began, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Average global air temperature reached 13.26 degrees Celsius in February, 0.53 degrees above the 1991–2020 average, the service said in its monthly report published on Tuesday. Compared with the pre-industrial period of 1850–1900, the month was 1.49 degrees warmer.
Parts of western Europe and North Africa were hit by a series of intense storms and heavy rainfall. France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco experienced severe flooding that caused deaths, significant damage and the loss of livelihoods for many people.
Flooding also affected other regions worldwide, including Australia, Mozambique and Botswana.
The extreme weather events highlighted the growing impacts of climate change and the need for global action, said Samantha Burgess, Copernicus' strategic lead for climate.
In Europe, the average land temperature in February was minus 0.07 degrees, slightly below the 1991–2020 average. Western, southern and south-eastern Europe recorded above-average temperatures, while colder-than-usual conditions were observed in Scandinavia, the Baltic States and north-western Russia.
Europe's winter as a whole, covering December to February, was among the two coldest of the past 13 years. However, it was still 0.09 degrees warmer than the 1991–2020 average.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service regularly publishes data on global surface temperatures, sea ice and precipitation, based on computer-generated analyses that integrate billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations worldwide.
