February set global temperature records, deviating from historical norms by a wider margin than any month ever recorded, Nasa announced on Saturday, raising further concerns about global warming. According to new NASA data, a combination of strong El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean and human-caused warming drove temperatures to levels never seen before since records began in 1880.

The data shows that February had a global average surface temperature of 1.35 degrees Celsius above the 1951 to 1980 average. It was the third consecutive month to break the record, which is calculated by setting the temperature for a particular month against the average temperature from that month between 1951 and 1980.

The 1.35-degree Celsius (2.43F) temperature anomaly in February beat the previous record, easily surpassing the 2.3F (1.14C) margin from January of this year. This means that temperatures in February this year had the largest departure from average of any month in NASA’s records since 1880. Scientists say the unprecedented temperatures were due to man-made climate change and an unusually strong El Niño pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

In a sign of how significant the jump was this February, Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist who directs the NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, wrote on Twitter that he rarely comments on individual findings but felt the need this month because it was a “special” case.

“Normally I don’t comment on individual months, but last month was special,” Schmidt wrote in his tweet last week.

Prior to this year, the warmest February on record came in 1998, another year with an extremely strong El Nino, NASA said. The unprecedented temperatures have led to unprecedented consequences, particularly in the Arctic where sea ice levels this winter have hit record lows.