Last month was the warmest February on record globally, marking the ninth month in a row with record-breaking temperatures, according to new data from Copernicus, the European Union's climate monitoring service. 

Scientists revealed that February was 1.77 C warmer than the pre-industrial average for the month, and 0.81 C above 1991-2020 levels. The global average for the past year — specifically between March 2023 and February 2024 — was the hottest in recorded history, at 1.56 C above pre-industrial levels. 

The latest record is just another sombre reminder of the impacts of human-caused global warming that are currently being exacerbated by El Niño, a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. 

"El Niñ0 likely played a critical role in February's warm. Persistent upper-level ridges over Central Canada — a hallmark of strong El Niño winters — created favourable conditions for above-seasonal temperatures," The Weather Network wrote on Saturday. 

Toronto just officially had its warmest winter ever https://t.co/RVf0M4jMdm

— blogTO (@blogTO) March 5, 2024

According to the weather agency, Toronto Pearson International Airport finished February with an average temperature of 0.2 C, which shattered the previous all-time warmest average February temperature of -0.2 C back in 2017. 

"The drumbeat of warm temperature records is also a glaring example of our changing climate. Sea surface temperatures are running at summertime levels across much of the Atlantic Ocean," the report reads. 

"The world just experienced its hottest 12-month period on record. Warm temperature extremes are more likely as the atmosphere's baseline temperatures continue to rise."