Driving the news: According to NOAA, some of the typically coldest states in the country saw record-setting warmth: North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
- For the country as a whole, the meteorological winter (December, January and February) had an average temperature that was 5.4°F above average for the season, beating the winter of 2015-2016 for the title.
- Parts of the Upper Midwest had temperature anomalies that exceeded the 20th century average (1901-2000) by more than 10°F, which is an unusually large margin for a seasonal record.
- Consistently above-average temperatures across the Midwest and Great Lakes led to just 2.7% lake ice coverage on Feb. 11, the lowest on record for that time of year, NOAA found.
The big picture: Globally, February was the warmest such month on record and the ninth-straight warmest month the planet has seen, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.