National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) has finally announced the temperature across the February of 2017 was the second warmest February in 140 years of weather history. The last warmest February was recorded in 1880. Two other individual studies and NOAA described this as the warmest winter ever in the world.
In the 20th century, global average temperature was about 53.8 degrees Fahrenheit. NOAA satellite captured during the month of February, this year Earth’s mean temperature of land and ocean surface was 1.76 degrees higher than the average. However, 1.76 degrees doesn’t seem not too much, but in the realm of globally average temperature anomalies, it is alarming.
According to The Weather Chanel, the average temperature of the land surface was 3.2 degrees warmer than the 20th century’s average and second highest in the global record. Not only land but oceans also get warmer. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies(GISS) has calculated that in February 2017, the temperatures of ocean surface were the second highest on record. Japan Meteorological Agency also acknowledged the result of NOAA and NASA, as they have been collecting the climate data since 1891.
Scientists also made a closer look towards the extent of ice caps in polar regions. Science Recorder reported that the average antarctic sea ice extent of February was 24.4 percent below 1981-2010 averages and the Arctic sea ice extent was 7.6 percent below normal. NOAA officials wrote in a statement,“Both regions logged the smallest February sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979”.
For skiers and snow enthusiasts, February was a great month. NOAA analysis says, in Northern Hemisphere, the snow extent was 150,000 square miles above the average of 1981-2010.
GISS report indicates that the Central and eastern United States, Canada, Asia and Mexico experienced the warmer temperature in February. There also have some countries where temperatures were cooler than the average that includes western Australia, southwest Canada, northeast Africa, Middle East and central equatorial Pacific coast. Now NOAA is providing monthly climate summaries to governments and scientists that will help them take better decisions for the environment.
