00:54 Climate Change Killing Clouds, Making Earth Warmer? No silver lining here. Researchers say climate change could kill clouds, making the Earth even warmer.

At a Glance Four separate agencies confirmed February ranked among the top five warmest for Earth.

Parts of western North America were a cold anomaly compared to much of the rest of the globe. As bitterly cold conditions gripped northern parts of the United States and western Canada in February, most other areas on Earth experienced another mild month, propelling the globe to one of its warmest Februaries on record, according to four separate analyses.

NOAA said on Monday that Earth had its fifth-warmest February , ranking behind 2016, 2017, 2015 and 1998. It also marked the 410th consecutive month that temperatures for the globe as a whole have been above average, or since December 1984 . For the year so far, including January and February, the global average temperature across all land and ocean surfaces ranks as fourth warmest.

NASA, Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Japanese Meteorological Agency found February 2019 ranked slightly warmer in their temperature databases. Small differences in rankings between the government agencies is due to differences in how temperatures are analyzed.

February tied 1998 as third warmest in NASA's records which extend back to 1880, only topped by 2016 and 2017.

NASA's graphical analysis of temperatures for February clearly illustrates how parts of western North America were a much colder outlier (blue shadings) from the rest of the world. Orange and red shadings, which depict above-average temperatures, dominate the map. Temperatures were farthest above average in parts of Europe, Russia and Alaska.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/february2019-nasa.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/february2019-nasa.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/february2019-nasa.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w" > Global temperature analysis for February 2019. Orange and red shaded areas were above average and the blue shaded areas were below average. (NASA)

Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Services also found February to be Earth's third warmest, only trailing 2016 and 2017.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) said February was Earth's fourth-warmest in its period of record dating to 1891. Only February 1998, 2017 and 2016 had milder conditions in their database.

Ultimately, what's most important is not whether a given month is a fraction of a degree warmer or colder; rather, it's the overall trend, which continues its upward climb since the late 1970s.

For more details on temperature records set in February, see Dr. Jeff Masters blog on wunderground.com .