EARTH got so hot last month that scientists described the temperatures as "astronomical", ''staggering" and "strange".
And the US experts warned that Earth's climate may have moved into a new, hotter neighbourhood.
This was not just another of the drumbeat of 10 straight broken monthly global heat records, triggered by a super El Nino and man-made global warming.
February 2016 obliterated old marks by such a margin that it was the most above-normal month since meteorologists started keeping track in 1880.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Earth averaged 56.08 degrees in February, 2.18 degrees above average - beating the old record for February set in 2015 by nearly six-tenths of a degree.
NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden said records were smashed on the land, the oceans, and the lower and middle atmosphere.
