February 2026 was nominally the second-warmest February on record, behind February 2024, with a monthly global average of about 2.78 degrees warmer than the 1850-1900 average. But it only marginally exceeded the conditions in February 2025 and 2016, so all three of those years could be considered tied.
Month-to-month temperatures ticked warmer in February 2026, reaching a level not seen since early 2025. But conditions remain modestly cooler than during the bulk of 2023 and 2024. February 2026 also has a somewhat-larger uncertainty than we would prefer due to ongoing disruptions and delays from some upstream data providers.
February 2026 was cooler than 2024, but still at least 0.7 degrees warmer than any February prior to 2016. February temperatures also exceed the 2.7-degree threshold for the first time since January 2025.
In February 2026, warmer temperatures were present in most regions. Those were especially prominent across North America, the Middle East, Central Asia, parts of Antarctica, and parts of both the Pacific and Atlantic. Cooler temperatures were present in parts of Scandinavia, Northern Asia and Northern Canada.
There was 3.9 percent of Earth’s surface that experienced a record-warm February monthly average. In Berkeley Earth’s estimation, 14 countries set record-warm national averages in February. Across land regions, February 2026 was nominally the second-warmest February since 1850, with a terrestrial average of about 4.59 warmer than the 1850 to 1900 average. Given the uncertainties, this is essentially indistinguishable from the warmth on land in 2016 and 2020, such that all three years could effectively be considered tied for the record warmest.
On a month-to-month basis, February 2026 is sharply warmer than January 2026, in large part due to an unusual increase in warmth in Northern mid-latitude land areas. We note however that February 2026 does have an unusually high uncertainty due to ongoing delays in weather-station data availability. That also contributes to some unusual gaps in spatial coverage. As additional weather-station data becomes available, this ranking may be modest revised.
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