March Was World's Second Warmest On Record

Almost all of the world was warmer than the
long term average, once again, in March
2023.  It was the world's second warmest
March on record. Small photo, so click
on the image to make it bigger and
easier to see. 

 As we do monthly, we always check the world's monthly temperature when the number crunchers complete their work. So now we have the March, 2023 global data.

The month was the world's second warmest. Only March, 2016 was warmer. All eight of the past eight Marches were in the top ten warmest. 

The other top 10 warmest March readings were in 2002 and 2010.  The records go back to 1850 or so.  

The March, 2023 departure from the 20th century average was the third highest for any month, just behind February and March, 2016.

For those of you keeping track, the last time the world had a March that was at least a smidge cooler than normal was in 1976. That means if you are under the age of 47, you've never seen a global March that was cooler than average.

NOAA's  National Centers for Environmental Information is already saying that 2023 is pretty much guaranteed to be among the top 10 warmest years on record and stands an excellent chance of being among the top five.

We've shifted out of a La Nina pattern of cool water in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which tends to try to cool the Earth a little. We're going into an El Nino, which tends to increase global temperatures. That means 2023 stands a chance at being the hottest year on record. 

In March, 2023, the places that appeared to be warmest in March relative to the long term average were much of the Arctic, especially in northern Canada, northeastern Canada, pretty much all of Asia except Southeast Asia, parts of eastern Europe, southern South America and much of Antarctica. 

The only places in the world that were on the cool side were the western United States, southwestern and south central Canada, an area of Pacific ocean southwest of South America, Iceland and an area of the Arctic north and northwest of Scandinavia. 

Overall the United States sat out the global warmth of March, 2023.  The Gulf Coast and the East Coast from Florida to New England were warm, but the western third of the United States was chilly.  Out of 130 years of record, this was the 45th coolest March in the contiguous U.S. 

Oregon had its third coldest March on record. California, Nevada and North Dakota had their fifth coldest March.  Florida managed to have its eighth warmest March

Here in Vermont, we had our 30th warmest March out of the past 130.

 Judging in part from epic heat waves that have already hit parts of China, southeastern Asia and the northeastern United States, April is sure to come in as one of the world 's top 10 hottest, and likely one of the top 5.