GLOBAL SEA ICE cover hit a record low last month, while sea surface temperatures were particularly high for February.

Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has released its monthly climate bulletin, which uses measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.

In February 2025, daily global sea ice extent, which includes sea ice in both of the polar regions, reached a new all-time minimum early in the month and remained below the previous record from February 2023.

Arctic sea ice reached its lowest monthly extent for February at 8% below average, which was the third month in a row where a record was set for the relevant month.

Antarctic sea ice reached its fourth-lowest monthly extent for February at 26% below average.

Daily global sea ice extent from October 1978 to 3 March 2025. The year 2025 is shown with a dark blue line, 2024 with a medium blue line and 2023 with a light blue line. C3S / ECMWF/EUMETSAT C3S / ECMWF/EUMETSAT / ECMWF/EUMETSAT

At the same time, the average sea surface temperature for February 2025 in the latitudes of 60° south to 60° north was 20.88°C, the second-highest value on record for the month, 0.18°C below the February 2024 record.

Sea surface temperatures were unusually high in many ocean basins and seas. The extent of these regions decreased compared to January, especially in the Southern Ocean and in the southern Atlantic, but some seas, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea, saw larger record-breaking areas than last month. 

“February 2025 continues the streak of record or near-record temperatures observed throughout the last two years,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

“One of the consequences of a warmer world is melting sea ice, and the record or near-record low sea ice cover at both poles has pushed global sea ice cover to an all-time minimum,” Burgess said.

On land, temperatures over Europe were generally cooler than average for February. They were above average in parts of Scandinavia, Iceland and the Alps but notably below average for eastern Europe.

For winter as a whole, from December to February, the average temperature for European land was the joint second highest on record for the season — 1.46°C above the 1991-2020 average. It was notably cooler, though, than the warmest European winter on record which occurred in 2020 by 2.84°C. 

Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average last month over large parts of the Arctic, as well as above average over northern Chile and Argentina, western Australia and the southwestern United States and Mexico.

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Surface air temperature anomaly for February 2025 relative to the February average for the period 1991-2020. C3S / ECMWF C3S / ECMWF / ECMWF

Precipitation in Europe was largely below average last month. However, Ireland, as well as Iceland, southern UK, central Italy and part of southern France were all wetter than average. 

Wetter-than-average conditions were also experienced in eastern and western US, Alaska, and parts of Canada, and in regions of the Arabian Peninsula, central Russia and central Asia. Southeastern Africa and the South Pacific saw the transit of several cyclones that caused significant damage.

It was drier than average in other parts of North America, southwest and central Asia, easternmost China as well as most of Australia and South America, with Argentina experiencing wildfires.

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