Happy Newyear 2017...

March 14:February 2016 warmest month

NASA releases data showing February 2016 warmest month ever recorded globally - 1.35C above the long-term average.

February was the warmest month in recorded history, climate experts say. From Alaska to Australia, an unprecedented heating of planet Earth is underway with rising temperatures across huge swathes of land mass and oceans. Indonesia is experiencing an unusually long dry season exacerbated by an El Nino event. Above, a palm oil plantation is burned to the ground in a peatland forest on the outskirts of Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. Illegal forest burning causes haze and pollution. Your planet went through a dramatic change last month. Climate experts revealed that February was the warmest month in recorded history, surpassing the previous global monthly record - set in December. An unprecedented heating of our world is now under way. With the current El Nino weather event only now beginning to tail off, meteorologists believe that this year is destined to be the hottest on record, warmer even than 2015. A vast region stretching from central Russia into eastern Europe, along with most of Alaska, experienced February temperatures more than 5C above the average for 1981 to 2010.

Those dangers are now being dramatically demonstrated around the globe: drought in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, which has forced the government there to issue a state of emergency warning; France observed its warmest winter since records began; while the sea ice that has formed in the Arctic this winter is about a million square kilometres less than its average for this time of year.Last month's jump in global temperatures represents an increase of 1.35C above the average temperature level for the period 1951-80 and 1.63C above pre-industrial levels, taking global temperature for the month above the 1.5C rise that last year's Paris climate was supposed to prevent.

New Zealand observed its second warmest month since national records began while in Toronto, Canada, temperatures reached 16C, the highest temperature ever for February. Similarly, the average February temperature in Venezuela and northern Colombia was about 3C higher than the 1981-2010 average. Not every nation enjoyed the heat, however. Temperatures were below average in southern Argentina , for example. Similarly, all official reporting stations in Iceland recorded below average temperatures for the month. The average sea surface temperature for December to February was 0.84C above the 20th century average of 15.8C, with record highs for large swaths of the tropical Pacific Ocean , various regions of the North and South Atlantic, much of the Indian Ocean, and the Barents Sea in the Arctic .
In normal, non-El Nino conditions, trade winds blow toward the west across the tropical Pacific, away from South America. These winds pile up warm surface water in the west Pacific, so that the sea surface is about 1 to 2 feet (0.3 m to 0.6 m) higher offshore Indonesia than across the Pacific, offshore Ecuador.

What is a El Nino effect?
El Nino is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean with a global impact on weather patterns. The cycle begins when warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean shifts eastward along the equator toward the coast of South America. Normally, this warm water pools near Indonesia and the Philippines.
What is the El Nino Southern Oscillation?
El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an irregularly periodical climate change caused by variations in sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting much of the tropics and subtropics. The warming phase is known as El Nino and the cooling phase as La Nina.
What is the El Nino event?
Share| El Nino is a warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific. It can have profound effects on weather patterns around the world.
What is an El Nino winter?
El Nino and La Nina are complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. Warmer or colder than average ocean temperatures in one part of the world can influence weather around the globe.

What is El Nino - La Nina