Global sea ice levels reached a ‘new all-time minimum’ for the month of February, beating the previous record set two years earlier, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Arctic sea ice extent for the month was 8% below average, the third month in a row that sea ice extent has set a record, while Antarctic sea ice was 26% below average, recording the fourth-lowest February extent on record.
Allied to this, global surface air temperatures for February 2025 were the third warmest on record, with an average temperature of 13.36°C, marking the 19th month out of the last 20 in which global-average surface air temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
‘A warmer world’
“February 2025 continues the streak of record or near-record temperatures observed throughout the last two years,” commented Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at ECMWF.
“One of the consequences of a warmer world is melting sea ice, and the record or near-record low sea ice cover at both poles has pushed global sea ice cover to an all-time minimum.”
Global temperatures
In Europe, the average February temperature was 0.44°C above the 1991-2020 average but did not rank among the 10 warmest February months, C3S noted.
Above-average temperatures were recorded in Northern Fennoscandia, Iceland, and the Alps, while a large part of eastern Europe recorded below-average temperatures.
On a global level, temperatures were highest above average in the Arctic, while northern Chile and Argentina, western Australia and the southwestern United States and Mexico were also above average.
Temperatures were most notably below average over parts of the United States and Canada, while other areas with below-average temperatures included regions adjacent to the Black, Caspian and eastern Mediterranean Seas, as well as in a large section of eastern Asia, covering parts of southern Russia, Mongolia, China and Japan.
Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) reached 20.88°C, the second-highest for the month, and 0.18°C below the February 2024 record.
Some regions, such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea saw record-breaking sea surface temperatures, C3S added.
Precipitation levels
Below-average precipitation was recorded in most parts of Europe, including much of central and eastern Europe, southeastern Spain, and Türkiye, while Iceland, Ireland, southern parts of the UK, and central Italy had wetter-than-average conditions.
Drier-than-average conditions were also recorded in North America, central Asia, China, and Australia, while Argentina experienced wildfires.
Wetter-than-average conditions were seen in eastern and western USA, Alaska, and parts of Canada, and in regions of the Arabian Peninsula, central Russia and central Asia.
The data is based on the ERA5 dataset and other sources from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) as part of the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme. Read more here.
