March 2020 Was Earth's Second-Warmest March on Record, NOAA Says

Brian Donegan

Published: April 13, 2020

March 2020 was Earth's second-warmest March in 141 years of temperature records, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported in its monthly summary of global climate.

NOAA's report released Monday found that global land and ocean temperatures in March were 2.09 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average. That was the second-highest monthly temperature departure from average for any March in 141 years of recordkeeping, and it tied with February 2020 and December 2015 as the third-highest departure from average for any month in the 1,683-month record.

Only February and March 2016, when a strong El Niño was present in the tropical Pacific Ocean, had higher temperature departures than March 2020, NOAA said.

Ultimately, what's most important is not whether a given month is a fraction of a degree warmer or colder. Rather, it's the overall trend, which continues its upward climb since the late 1970s.

March marked the 423rd consecutive month and 44th straight March that global temperatures have been above average in NOAA's database. Earth's five warmest Marches have occurred since 2015, and the 10 warmest have all occurred since 1990.

March 2020 temperature departures from 1981-2010 averages over all of Earth's land and ocean surfaces. Areas in the darkest red shadings had the warmest March temperatures relative to average.

The most notable warmer-than-average temperatures in March were recorded across the eastern half of the United States, much of Asia and southern South America, where temperatures were 3.6 degrees above average or higher.

Some ocean areas were quite warm as well, including parts of the Atlantic, central Indian and portions of the northern and southwestern Pacific oceans, where temperatures were 1.8 degrees above average or higher.

NOAA said the most significant cooler-than-average temperatures of at least 2.7 degrees below average were found across Canada, Alaska, northern India, as well as parts of the North Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic.

March 2020 had record-warm temperatures in parts of southern North America, South America, Asia and Africa, along with portions of the Atlantic, Indian and western Pacific oceans. There was one small area of the North Atlantic that had record-cold March temperatures.

South America had its warmest March on record in 2020, while the Caribbean region had its second-warmest March, NOAA said.

2020 is likely to rank among the five warmest years on record, according to a statistical analysis published by NOAA/NCEI scientists in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

March 2020 temperature percentiles. Areas in the darkest red shadings had a record-warm March in 2020.

NASA also concluded that last month was the second-warmest March on record.

Another expert analysis came to a similar conclusion about March's global temperatures, though it was not quite as high as NOAA's and NASA's rankings.

Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service found March 2020 to be the fourth-warmest March on record, but it was within 0.04 degrees of the second- and third-warmest Marches from 2017 and 2019.

Differences in rankings like these can emerge from variations in how research groups analyze global temperature, including how they account for data-sparse areas such as the Arctic.

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.

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.