The winter of 2014-15 was thewarmest on record, a U.S. government agency said Wednesday.
The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces in December through February was 1.42°F (0.79°C) above the 20th century average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a report.
"This was the highest for December–February in the 1880–2015 record, surpassing the previous record of 2007 by 0.05°F (0.03°C)," read the report. Records have been kept since 1880.
Winter is climatologically defined as December, January and February in the northern hemisphere, while those months are summer in the southern hemisphere.
"The northern hemisphere had its warmest winter on record and the southern hemisphere had its fourthwarmest summer," the agency said.
Individually, December 2014 was the warmest December on record, while the subsequent two months were the second warmest January and February respectively, according to the report.
The first two months of 2015 were also the warmest such period on record across the world's land and ocean surfaces, at 0.79°C (1.42°F) above the 20th century average.
