Although this might come as a shock to residents of the Northeast who are still digging themselves out from record amounts of snow, new data shows the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2014-15 — defined as the period from December to February — was the warmest on record for Earth.

In addition, the year-to-date so far is the warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

See also: Summer heat waves may have roots in rapid Arctic warming

Both these data points, plus information from NASA and other researchers, demonstrates that the record-warm year of 2014 was no fluke. In fact, 2015 has a decent shot at exceeding the 2014 record, for a back-to-back string of record-warm years.

Winter average temperature departures from the 1981-2010 average. Image: NOAA/NCDC

NASA also ranked February 2015 as the second-warmest such month on record in its database, behind February 1998. NOAA and NASA track similar sets of weather stations, but process the information and rank months and years in slightly different ways, which can lead to discrepancies in their rankings.

Remarkably, the globally-averaged land surface temperature during this past December to February was 2.63 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, tying with 2007 as the highest for that period since instrument records began in 1880. The land temperature milestone was reached despite extreme cold throughout eastern Canada and half of the lower 48 states during all of February.

Much-warmer-than average temperatures this winter were widespread across Central America, northern and central South America, Australia, most of Africa and much of Eurasia, including a broad swath that covered most of Russia and extended across Scandinavia, according to NOAA and NASA data.

More importantly, the average temperature across land and ocean surfaces was the warmest on record during meteorological winter, beating the previous record set in 2007 by 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit.

For 2015 so far, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.42 degrees Fahrenheit above average, according to NOAA, beating previous records set in 2002 and tied in 2007, by 0.07 degrees Fahrenheit.

Global average wintertime temperature departures from average since 1880, showing the record high in 2015. Image: NOAA/NCDC

Part of the unusual warmth was due to a developing El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean, which is temporarily boosting temperatures in the vicinity of the equator, and adding heat to the atmosphere.

The El Niño raises the odds that 2015 will break 2014's global temperature record, although that is far from certain.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story stated that NASA data shows February 2015 was the warmest such month on record. In fact, NASA data shows February 2015 was the second-warmest such month, behind February of 1998.