Heat records broken as February reflects warming of planet
WASHINGTON — For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.
The latest record-breaking includes sea surface temperatures that eclipsed any month on record — soaring past August 2023’s mark and still rising at the end of the month. And February, as well the previous two winter months, soared well past the internationally set threshold for long-term warming, Copernicus reported Wednesday.
The last month that didn’t set a record for hottest month was May 2023, and that was a close third to 2020 and 2016. Copernicus records have fallen regularly from June on.
February 2024 averaged 56.37 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the old record from 2016 by about an eighth of a degree. February was 3.19 degrees warmer than the late 19th century, Copernicus calculated. Only last December was more above pre-industrial levels for the month than February was.
Climate scientists say most of the record heat is from human-caused climate change of carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Additional heat comes from a natural El Niño, a warming of the central Pacific that changes global weather patterns.
This was the warmest winter — December, January and February — by nearly a quarter of a degree, beating 2016, which was also an El Niño year. The three-month period was the most any season has been above pre-industrial levels in Copernicus record-keeping, which goes back to 1940.
Embryo transfers resume:
At least one Alabama fertility clinic resumed embryo transfers Thursday, just hours after Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law that offered clinics and doctors legal protection for in vitro fertilization procedures.
The law, which quickly passed the state Legislature with bipartisan support Wednesday, was a direct response to a state Supreme Court ruling late last month that frozen embryos should be considered children.
The ruling rattled reproductive medicine practices in Alabama, and several clinics temporarily stopped offering IVF treatment, fearing legal consequences.
“We won’t take this for granted anymore,” said Dr. Mamie McLean, an infertility specialist at Alabama Fertility, who confirmed Thursday morning that the practice had scheduled a few embryo transfers for later in the day and on Friday.
But McLean acknowledged that more legal clarity is needed to ensure that IVF could continue without issue in the long term.
Republican legislators, torn between a pledge to protect unborn life and a rush to restart IVF treatments, sidestepped the question of whether an embryo should be considered a person and focused on allowing clinics to reopen.
Haiti extends curfew: Haiti’s government said Thursday that it is extending a state of emergency and nighttime curfew to try to curb violent gang attacks that have paralyzed the capital, Port-auPrince, in a fierce battle for political power.
An initial three-day curfew was announced over the weekend, but gangs have continued to attack police stations and other state institutions at night as Haiti’s National Police struggles to contain the violence with limited staff and resources.
“The people with the guns are essentially the current arbiter of Haitian politics,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia. “The gangs have won the battle so far.”
The attacks began a week ago, shortly after embattled Prime Minister
Ariel Henry agreed to hold general elections in mid-2025 while attending a meeting in Guyana. He is stuck in Puerto Rico, forced to land there Tuesday after the airport was seized.
Gangs have burned police stations, shot up the main international airport, which remains closed, and raided Haiti’s two biggest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.
There were reports that gangs looted shipping containers Thursday filled with food at the main port in Port-au-Prince, raising concerns that provisions in the capital and elsewhere would dwindle quickly.
Power lines blamed for fires:
Power lines ignited massive wildfires across the Texas Panhandle that killed at least two people, destroyed homes and livestock, and left a charred landscape, officials said Thursday.
The Texas A&M Forest Service said its investigators concluded that power lines ignited the historic Smokehouse Creek fire, which has burned nearly 1,700 square miles and spilled into neighboring Oklahoma; and the nearby Windy Deuce fire, which has burned about 225 square miles. The statement did not elaborate.
Utility provider Xcel Energy said its equipment appeared to have sparked the Smokehouse Creek fire, but the Minnesota-based company said in the news release that it did not believe its equipment caused the ignition of the Windy Deuce fire, nor was it aware of any allegations that it had.
Containment levels have been increasing. The Smokehouse Creek fire was 74% contained Thursday, while the Windy Deuce fire was 89%. But the Forest Service warned that high winds are expected to be moving across the dry landscape, increasing fire danger.
Nigerian kids kidnapped:
A school headteacher in northwestern Nigeria says gunmen who attacked the government-owned school in Kaduna State’s Kuriga town abducted 287 students as they were about to start classes.
No group claimed responsibility, although blame fell on armed groups that have been accused of carrying out violent attacks and kidnappings for ransom.
The attack occurred days after more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by extremists in northeastern Nigeria.