Past winter warmest on record: NOAA

The just-past winter, defined as the three-month period from December to February, was the warmest since record keeping began in 1880, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Wednesday.

The global average temperature for February itself was 0.82 degree Celsius above the 20th century average, making it the second warmest February on record.

"Together, the record warm December, second warmest January, and second warmest February made the combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for the December-February period the highest on record for this period," the NOAA said in its monthly report.

The average temperature for the three months was at 0.79 degree Celsius above the 20th century average of 12.1 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record of 2007 by 0.03 degree Celsius, the agency added.

The January-February globally averaged temperature was also record high, surpassing the previous records of 2002 and 2007 by 0. 04 degree Celsius.

Areas with record warmth during the winter included the western United States and part of central Siberia and eastern Mongolia.

Southern Mexico, Central America, northern South America, the U. S. state of Alaska, much of Eurasia extending into Africa, southeastern Asia, eastern Africa and large parts of Australia were much warmer than average.

Eastern North America and far southern South America were the only land areas with cooler-than-average temperatures during the December-February period, according to the NOAA. Endite