February World Temperature Record, Warmest Month Ever

© Julian Stratenschulte/dpa/AP

Hot, hot, hot: February breaks worldwide temperature record - Earth's temperature soared to a record high last month, a whopping 1.5 degrees above average as measured by weather satellites.

That's a huge amount in climate science, where records are often broken by hundredths or tenths of degrees. The level makes February the most unusually warm month ever recorded, scientists from the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) said.

Scientists blamed the warmth on a combination of man-made global warming and the near-record El Niño climate pattern.

"The record might have as much to do with an extraordinarily warm month in the Arctic as it does with warming caused by the El Niño," said John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center at UAH.

Some areas in the Arctic experienced temperatures as much as 29 degrees warmer than average last month.

The data from the UAH team comes from satellites, which measure and calculate the temperature of the atmosphere about five miles above the Earth's surface. Satellites have been taking the readings for the past 40 years.

Satellite temperature data includes remote desert, ocean and rainforest areas where reliable surface data are not otherwise available, according to UAH.

Monthly temperature data measured at the Earth's surface is released mid-month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA. NOAA said January 2016 was the warmest January since records began in 1880.

Climate change skeptics previously pointed to satellite temperature measurements to bolster claims the Earth wasn't warming. Until recently, satellites had not measured the same level of warming as surface measurements.