18 March 2017

February Second Warmest on Record

Posted by Dan Satterfield

Climate Central compared the February temps. to the average global temps. from around 1880-1910 and this month was over 1.3C above that average.

This February was 1.76°F (0.98°C) above the 20th-century average. The only February that was hotter was in 2016.

When compared to the 20th-century average, February was the 7th hottest of any month on record

The last February below the 20th-century average was in 1976.

The rate of the February temperature increase has doubled since 1980.

15 of the 20 warmest Februaries have come since 2000. None were before 1983.

February 2017 is the 386th consecutive month when the global temperature was above the 20th-century average.

Another interesting graphic to share.
There seems to be a belief out there that climate models cannot reproduce the warming and are not a reliable way to forecast the future. While no model is perfect, they are all usually quite useful. That said, the graphic below shows how well the current best climate models can reproduce the temperature warming. The different coloured lines are the temperature reconstructions from NOAA, UKMET Office, NASA, etc. The dark narrow line is the average of the models forecast and the grey shaded area is showing the variance among the different models. Note how well they do. This should give you pause when you think about the fact that these models show a dramatic warming in the next 50-70 years if we do not quickly reduce the amount of carbon we are putting into the atmosphere.

Hat tip to Climatologist Zeke Hausfather for this.

One last graphic courtesy of climatologist Brian Brettschneider who plotted the 12-month running average of the NASA temperature data. In spite of a La Nina (Usually the cooler months globally because of cold surface water in the Pacific) we are at record warmth on the instrumental record.

Brian Brettschneider posts a lot of great climate info graphics from @climatologist49 on Twitter.