By James Pero For Dailymail.com
Published: 19:10 GMT, 18 March 2019 | Updated: 20:03 GMT, 18 March 2019
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If winter seemed unseasonably warm this year, it's not just a coincidence, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).
In 2019, January through February was the globe's fourth warmest two-month period in 140 years said the organization in a recent monthly report.
According to the NOAA, which chronicles rising temperatures across the globe, the month of February clocked in at 55.3 F, which is 1.42 degrees higher than the 20th century average of 53.9 degrees.
Most of the globe experienced temperatures that ranged from 'much warmer than average' to 'record warmest.'
The rise is just the latest in a trend of 410 consecutive months in which global temperatures were logged above average.
As a result, the NOAA says Earth has seen a persistent decrease in the amount of global sea ice, which was 5.9 percent below a 29-year average between 1981 to 2010, in addition to continued warming of sea surface temperatures.
In February, global sea temperatures were 60.6 F, the second highest on record.
If recent projections are correct, the phenomenon presages what has already been foreshadowed as the hottest decade ever on record.
A Met Office report from February predicted that the average global surface temperatures for 2019 to 2023 will be between 1.03 C and 1.57 C above the
