India, April 28 -- Thanks to La Nina conditions - it is the cyclical cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that has a cooling effect on global average temperature - the global average temperature was not ranked very high in the December-February period. Each of the three months from December 2025 to February 2026 was ranked only the fifth warmest. This relatively cool period is now coming to an end, an HT analysis of temperature data for March and April suggests. This is because the impact of La Nina conditions is now wearing off.

That the latest December, January, and February months were ranked fifth warmest would not, under normal circumstances, suggest cool weather. But they are likely to have appeared cooler than the immediately p...