Last month was officially the warmest March on record, with global temperatures 0.73°C above average – and experts say climate change is to blame
Since there are plenty of sunbathing opportunities in the Northern Hemisphere, this may not come as a surprise.
But now it’s official: last month was the warmest March on record, according to the EU’s climate change programme.
The global average temperature for the month was 57.4 F (14.14 C), which is 0.18 F (0.10 C) higher than the temperature of the previous warmest March of 2016.
Worryingly, this is also 0.73°C warmer than the 1991-2020 global average for February – and experts point to greenhouse gas emissions as the cause.
This is the tenth consecutive record month, with every month since June being the warmest on record.
March 2024 was the warmest March on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 57.4°F (14.14°C)
People enjoy the spring sunshine in St James’s Park London as temperatures are expected to reach 17 degrees Celsius on March 20, 2024
EU scientists have already revealed that last year was the hottest year on record, while July 2023 was not only the warmest July on record, but also the warmest month on record.
“March 2024 continues the series of climate record-breaking events for both air and ocean surface temperatures, with the tenth consecutive record month,” said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of Copernicus Climate Service (C3S).
‘The global average temperature is the highest ever recorded, with the past 12 months being 1.58°C above pre-industrial levels.
‘Stopping further warming requires rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.’
Britons may find the new record hard to believe as the country was hit by cold and wet for part of March – but the new value is an average for the whole world.
Climate experts are urging the public to keep in mind that global temperatures are rising, even if local temperatures don’t always seem to be.
This graph shows daily global mean surface air temperature (°C) deviations from estimated 1850-1900 values for 2024 (in white) and 2023 (red)
Tourists spend time on Postiguet beach on a cloudy day in the city of Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana region, eastern Spain, March 28, 2024
People walk past spring flowers in London’s Hyde Park on a sunny spring day, March 30, 2024
C3S, managed by the European Commission, looks at temperature measurements from a variety of platforms and instruments, from weather stations to weather balloons and satellites.
The department’s measurements refer to the average air temperature for the entire planet over the entire year – so lower than a single typical ‘hot’ temperature measurement.
Last month was 1.68°C warmer than an estimate of the March average for the period 1850-1900, the ‘pre-industrial’ reference period, it appears.
Furthermore, the global average temperature over the past twelve months (April 2023 to March 2024) is the highest ever recorded.
It is 0.70°C above the 1991 to 2020 average and 1.58°C above the pre-industrial average from 1850 to 1900.
Looking at Europe separately from the rest of the world, temperatures last month were 3.81 F (2.12 C) above the February 1991-2020 average.
This makes last month the second warmest March on record for Europe, just a marginal 0.02°C cooler than March 2014.
Temperatures were especially above average in the central and eastern regions, including Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Croatia, Latvia and Moldova.
March sunshine and fine weather in the picturesque fishing village of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, March 23, 2024
Tourists enjoy the almond blossom trees in early spring at Badawari Garden on March 20, 2024 in Srinagar, India
In the photo the sea surface temperature for March 2024. This is a separate measure to measure how warm the world is
Meanwhile, temperatures outside Europe were most above average in eastern North America, Greenland, eastern Russia, Central America and southern Australia, as well as parts of South America, Africa and Antarctica.
Conditions were also drier than average in parts of Central America, western Canada and northern Mexico, regions of Central Asia and China and in southeastern Australia, most of southern Africa and South America.
CS3’s main metric for measuring how warm it is is the temperature of the air, but it also tracks the temperatures of the world’s oceans.
This is because it looks at sea surface temperature (SST) – how hot the water is close to the ocean surface.
CS3 said the average global sea surface temperature for February 2024 was 37.93 F (21.07 C), the highest of any month and just above February’s value.
Because the ocean covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, SST provides fundamental information about the global climate system.
This graph shows daily sea surface temperatures (°C), averaged for 2016 (yellow), 2023 (red) and 2024 (black line). All other years between 1979 and 2022 are shown with gray lines
Tourists in Cangwu County in Wuzhou city, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 27 March 2024
As the Northern Hemisphere enters spring, it seems likely that by the end of May, twelve full months in a row will be the warmest months on record for that month
Even more worrying is the possibility that an upcoming month in 2024 could replace July 2023 as the warmest month on record.
The global average temperature for July 2023 was 62.51 °F (16.95 °C), the highest since records began in 1940 and well above the previous record of 61.93 °F (16.63 °C) from July 2019.
Meanwhile, overall, 2023 set the record for the hottest year on record, largely due to ‘unprecedented’ global temperatures from June onwards, caused mainly by greenhouse gases.
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane (the two main greenhouse gases) continued to rise, reaching record levels in 2023.