The 2023-24 winter season was the warmest ever recorded for the mainland United States, official data showed Friday, in the latest sign the world is moving into unprecedented territory as a result of the climate crisis.
The average temperature in the lower 48 US states from December to February was 37.6 degrees Fahrenheit (3.1C), 5.4 degrees F (3.0C) above average, "ranking as the warmest winter on record," the agency said.
Eight states across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast each saw their warmest winter on record, while temperatures around the Gulf of Mexico were near average.
The average temperature for the lower 48 states in February was 41.1F F, 7.2F above average, the third warmest in the 130-year-long record.
The Smokehouse Creek wildfire, which began on February 26 and became the largest blaze in Texas' history, burned more than a million acres in the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma, the agency added.
Other notable events included unusual atmospheric patterns that brought heavy rain and snow to parts of the West, causing powerful winds, significant flooding, landslides and power outages to parts of California.
"The city of Los Angeles received more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain during February, approximately three times the February average, becoming the wettest February in decades for the city," the statement said.
President Joe Biden referred to global warming as a "climate crisis" in his State of the Union speech on Thursday night, moving away from the phrase "climate change."
"I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis," he said, hailing his signature climate infrastructure law.
Last month was the warmest February on record globally, the ninth straight month of historic high temperatures across the planet as climate change steers the world into "uncharted territory," Europe's climate monitor said earlier this week.
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) last month said the period from February 2023 to January 2024 marked the first time Earth had endured 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the pre-industrial era.
The UN's IPCC climate panel has warned that the world will likely crash through 1.5C in the early 2030s. Holding warming to below 1.5C has been deemed crucial to averting a long-term planetary climate disaster.
Planet-heating emissions, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, continue to rise when scientists say they need to fall by almost half this decade.
Countries at UN climate negotiations in Dubai last year agreed to triple global renewables capacity this decade and "transition away" from fossil fuels.
But the deal lacked important details, with governments now under pressure to strengthen their climate commitments in the short term and for beyond 2030.
