Global hot streak continues. February, winter, world’s oceans all break high temperature marks.

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists calculate that for the ninth straight month Earth has obliterated global heat records. The European Union’s climate agency Copernicus says February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans set new high-temperature marks. Sea surface temperatures weren’t just the hottest for February, but are eclipsing any month on record, soaring past August 2023’s mark and still rising at the end of the month. Scientists say it is clearly long-term human-caused warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, along with a boost from a natural El Nino’s warming of the central Pacific that alters weather worldwide.