A federal climate-monitoring agency says last month was the sixth warmest February on record when land and ocean-surface temperatures are combined.

December to February also was the fifth warmest winter season on record.

When land and ocean temperatures are tallied seperately, the average surface temperature for oceans worldwide was the second warmest on record, after 1998, for both the month of February and the winter season. That was likely helped along by El Niño, a periodic warming of the eastern Pacific that can intensify storms.

Average global land surface temperature alone for the month of February was the 14th warmest — a tie with 1992 — and the 13th warmest for the December to February season.

The data can be found in the monthly climate snapshot from the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The snapshot captured a few other unusual readings:

– It was unusually cold in February across the continguous United States, Mexico, Europe and Russia, though warmer than average for land surface in Alaska, Canada and in the Middle East and northern Africa.

– Arctic sea ice covered an average of 5.6 million square miles, which is 6.8 percent below the average for 1979-2000, and the fourth lowest amount of coverage for February since sea ice records began in 1979. It was the 12th consecutive February with below average Arctic sea ice extent, which has decreased by 2.9 percent per decade in February since 1979.

– Antarctic sea ice, however, was 7.3 percent above the 1979-2000 average, the eighth largest extent of Antarctic sea ice for February on record. In that same period, the February extent for Antarctic sea ice has grown by 3.1 percent per decade.

– Snow cover in the northern hemisphere was the third largest on record for February after 1978 and 1972. For the December to February season, northern hemisphere snow cover was the second largest in extent, after 1978. Snow cover in North America alone was the largest extent on record for the December to February season.

The monthly climate snapshots are meant to help farmers, resource managers and scientists, though they say little about long-term climate trends over decades.

The climate agency does, however, issue seperate reports on long-term climate trends, including a recent analysis showing that the nation’s cold winter was not evidence of “global cooling.”

The agency also recently found that 2009 tied with 2006 as the fifth warmest year on record, and the 2000s were the warmest decade on record — taking that title away from 1990-99.

The agency’s reports are based on records going back as far as 1880.

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