FLASH
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February this year was ranked as the fifth warmest ever recorded globally, while in some areas of Europe it was accompanied by heavy rainfall and flooding, according to data from the European Copernicus Observatory.
According to the monthly climate bulletin, the average global temperature on the Earth's surface reached 13.26°C, about 1.49°C higher than the average for the period 1850–1900, which is used as a reference for the period before the massive use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas began.
Meanwhile, in Europe, average temperatures were lower and February was ranked among the coldest months in the last 14 years, although the continent was characterized by large regional differences.
Temperatures below the 1991–2020 average were recorded in Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic states and northwestern Russia. In contrast, Western and Southern Europe experienced significantly higher than normal temperatures.
Ocean surface temperatures also turned out to be very high, with February ranking as the second warmest ever recorded for this indicator.
In the Arctic, the average sea ice extent was about 5% below average, marking the third lowest level for a February. However, even in this region, contrasts were noted, as Greenland recorded the largest February ice extent in the past 22 years.
Strong contrasts were also observed in hydrological conditions. Western and Southern Europe experienced a much wetter than average month, while other parts of the continent faced drier conditions. In France, heavy rainfall caused flooding.
On February 16 and 17, a series of nine storms hit Spain, Portugal and Morocco, bringing torrential rain and strong winds that left more than 50 dead.
A study published by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group of scientists concludes that climate change has contributed to the intensification of these extreme rainfall events.
"The extreme weather events during February 2026 underscore the increasingly severe consequences of climate change and the urgent need for global action to address them," a Copernicus representative said in a statement.
According to the European observatory, in many cases intense rainfall and flooding have also been linked to the phenomenon of "atmospheric rivers", narrow corridors of very humid air that transport large amounts of water and cause record rainfall in some areas of Europe.
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