The global average temperature for the past 12 months (March 2023–February 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.68°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.56°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.

The daily global average temperature was exceptionally high during the first half of the month, reaching 2°C above the 1850-1900 levels on four consecutive days (8–11 February).

European temperatures in February 2024 were 3.30°C above the 1991-2020 average for February, with way-above average temperatures experienced in central and eastern Europe.

Outside Europe, temperatures were above average over northern Siberia, central and northwest North America, the majority of South America, across Africa, and in western Australia.

El Niño continued to weaken in the equatorial Pacific, but marine air temperatures in general remained at an unusually high level.

The average global sea surface temperature (SST) for February 2024 over 60°S–60°N was 21.06°C, the highest for any month in the dataset, above the previous record of August 2023 (20.98°C). Sea surface temperature is defined over the global extrapolar ocean, from 60°S to 60°N. This is used as a standard diagnostic for climate monitoring.

The average daily SST reached a new absolute high of 21.09°C at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, European winter temperature was the second warmest on record, after the winter of 2019/2020, at 1.44°C above the 1991-2020 average.

Arctic sea ice extent was 2% below average, not as low as in most recent years, in particular, compared to the minimum February extent recorded in 2018 (6% below average). However, the February 2024 extent is well below the values observed in the 1980s and 1990s.

Sea ice concentrations were markedly below average in the northern Barents Sea but remained above average in the nearby Greenland Sea, a persistent feature since October.

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