The world's temperature sweltered last month. It was the second warmest February of all Februaries in almost 140 years, according to data released this week.
Data from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies revealed that the global temperature in February was 1.1 degrees Celsius above average. Last year's February recorded a temperature of 1.32 degrees Celsius, which was a breakaway from the average records in 137 years.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has also recorded that last month was the second warmest since 1891.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also disclosed that February 2017 ranked second to last year's February trailing behind by a couple tenths of a degree in its set of data.
The temperature anomaly was not so significant locally, but it has a tremendous impact in global scale where measurements were calibrated in terms of hundredths and tenths of degrees. The measurement of Earth's average temperature was done over land and sea.
Not Unexpected
The latest data, however, is not surprising after the last three years had recorded warmer global temperatures.
The years 2014, 2015, and 2016 had seen warm global temperature records, NASA said.
The dataset from NASA covering the period of 1,629 months which dates back to 1880 showed that no single month before October 2015 had a temperature irregularity of 1 degree Celsius.
There were eight months since October 2015 where an irregularity of warm temperatures was recorded. Seven of these eight months happened in succession from October 2015 to April 2016.
The Warmest
The unusually warm February was experienced in central and eastern parts of Asia, Canada's central and southern regions, and in 16 states of the central and eastern parts of the United States.
The central and eastern part of Russia had also its warmest temperature last month.
It was also felt in Mexico and the polar region in the north.
Sea ice in the Arctic had melted to around 455,600 square miles, which was lesser by 15,400 square miles compared to last year's record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Cooler Than Average
The cooler than average temperatures were also recorded in some places, the NASA/GISS records revealed.
These are the regions near the Pacific Ocean at the equator, Canada's southwest, the Baffin Island and the Baffin Bay, the Middle East, northeast Africa, and the western part of Australia.
While it was the second warmest February worldwide, in these areas, February 2017 marked 379 months of colder-than-average month since July 1985.
