Last month was the hottest January ever recorded across the globe, according to data released by the European Union’s climate monitoring service.
In Europe, temperatures were 3.1C higher than the 19-year average between 1981 and 2020, and 0.2C warmer than the previous warmest January in 2007, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said.
Global temperatures were also 0.03C warmer than the previous warmest January in 2016.
Temperatures were particularly high over large parts of north east Europe, reaching more than 6C above average in many places.
The findings are based on computer-generated analysis using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
The higher above average temperatures extended over almost all of Russia and were also recorded over most parts of the USA and eastern Canada.
Temperatures were also higher above average over the state of New South Wales in Australia, where devastating and unprecedented bushfires have been raging since September.
Japan and parts of eastern China and Southeast Asia as well as parts of Antarctica also saw above average temperatures.
In Alaska and north-western Canada, and over Baffin and Ellesmere Islands in north-eastern Canada, temperatures were substantially below average.
It comes after Copernicus revealed last month that the year 2019 was the second hottest on record, after 2016.
It also comes a day after the Met Office revealed that last month was the sixth warmest January on record for the UK.
The average mean temperature across the UK was 5.6C, according to provisional figures.
The warmest January on record was in 1916, when the mean temperature was 6.3C.
