February's Unusual Heat Has Climate Change Link, Scientists Find

Global warming has made winter swelters like the one experienced in February three times more likely, according to a new rapid analysis.

A new rapid analysis has concluded that climate change has made winter swelters like the one experienced this February in the United States at least three times more likely.

"We found clear and strong links between last month's record warmth in the United States, and climate change," Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a senior researcher at the Netherlands Meteorological Institute, said in a statement.

He and five other scientists involved in the group World Weather Attribution conducted what's called a rapid attribution study to figure this out.  The results were published online on Wednesday, the same day that the National Centers for Environmental Information announced that last month was officially the second-warmest February in the 123-year record for the 48 contiguous states.  For 16 states east of the Rockies this past February was the hottest ever recorded.

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