Second Warmest February and March on Record

The past two complete months have been Earth’s second warmest February and March respectively (NASA, NOAA, JMA, and others). This is a continuation of warmer than normal conditions in which we saw the planet’s second warmest winter (Dec-Feb) in more than a century of record keeping. 2020 is so far on track to become one of the warmest years, if not the warmest year, a record that is currently held by 2016. One of the notable differences between 2020 and some of the previous record years is the lack of El Nino conditions.

Global land and ocean surface temperature anomalies for February-March compared to the 20th century average (NOAA/NCEI; https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/)

For more information and a breakdown of these near-record months, as well as a summary of notable global climate events from 2020 so far, please see the following from Bob Henson on Weather Underground:

February summary

March summary