Despite news-making blizzards and snowstorms that got a lot of attention in the U.S., globally the winter of 2014-15 was the warmest on record, a report says.
The report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the average temperature across global ocean and land surfaces was 1.42 degrees F above the average for the 20th century, and was the highest since record keeping was initiated in 1880.
The freezing weather experienced by the U.S. East was an anomaly and stuck out in the global record like a sore thumb, weather experts said.
Meanwhile, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America were warmer from December through February than in any similar period before, the NOAA report says.
The U.S. West also recorded record warmth, it says, partly due to a developing El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean, temporarily increasing temperatures around the equator and pumping heat into the atmosphere.
This year to date is also the warmest on record, with NASA ranking February as the warmest such month in its records.
The new report comes following official classification of 2014 as the all-time hottest year on record.
2015 could break that record, especially if the El Niño pattern gains in strength, experts say.
The United States has been a case of extremes, with cities in the Northeast and eastern Canada dealing with record low temperatures while Boston has experienced 108.6 inches of snow, the most in a single season since 1872.
Meanwhile the Northwest is experiencing an early spring.
An unseasonably warm March brought stifling heat to Los Angeles, which affected runners in the city's marathon run on Sunday.
Bill Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., described the last two months as "record-breaking hot and extremely dry" for what is normally the region's rainy season.
"It's been an exceptionally warm winter in the Western U.S.," he said.
