Meteorological winter (December 2019 through February 2020) was Europe's warmest in at least 170 years, according to a new report.

The average temperature in Europe over winter's three months was 6.1 degrees Fahrenheit above average, topping the previous record-warm European winter of 2015-16 by about 2.5 degrees, according to a monthly report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

This was staggering when considering temperature data averaged over an entire continent over a three-month period.

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When comparing this C3S dataset dating to 1979 with a number of other datasets dating to the mid-19th century, C3S also said this was the warmest European winter going back to at least 1850.

It was the warmest winter on record in Russia, dating to 1891, according to a report issued Thursday from the Hydrometcenter of Russia.

Parts of western and central Russia were 10 to 14 degrees warmer than average from December through February.

The HoR report said Moscow's winter temperature, averaged from December through February, was above freezing for the first time on record.

It was also a record-warm winter in Finland, where no measurable snow was recorded from January through February in the capital, Helsinki, for the first time on record.

C3S also found February global temperatures trailed only 2016 as the warmest February in records dating to 1979.

This is impressive considering a record-tying strong El Niño was in place in February 2016, but not in 2020.

February monthly record highs were shattered in at least nine European countries in the last week of the month, as documented by Finnish Meteorological Institute researcher Mika Rantanen.

A prime reason for the warm winter was a persistently strong polar vortex high above the Earth in the stratosphere, keeping colder air fenced in near the pole, rather than plunging it deep into Europe and locking it in place.

Global reports on February and winter temperatures from NASA, NOAA and the Japan Meteorological Agency will be released later this month.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.