Last month was the world's warmest March on record
Debris scatters the ground near damaged homes following a severe storm on March 15, 2024, in Lakeview, Ohio. Photo: AP/Joshua A. Bickel
Last month was the warmest March on record globally, and the tenth consecutive month in which all-time temperatures were broken for a respective month of the year, scientists have said.
According to a new report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) the EU's climate monitoring service, global temperatures in March were 1.68C warmer than the pre-industrial average for that month, from 1850 to 1900, and .73C above the 1991-2020 average temperature for March. Last month was also .10C hotter than the previous March record, set in 2016.
The global average temperature from April 2023 to March 2024 is now the highest on record at 1.58C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.
The landmark Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 countries in 2015, set a 1.5C rise in global temperatures compared to 1850-1900 as the limit to avoid the very worst fallout from climate change. This latest C3S data places the world temporarily above this 1.5C threshold.
In Europe, temperatures in March 2024 were 2.12C above the 1991-2020 average for the month, with temperatures well above average seen in central and eastern Europe.
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Overall, last month was the second-warmest March ever in Europe, just .02C off the continent’s March temperature record, set in 2014.
Above average temperatures were also recorded last month in eastern North America, Greenland, eastern Russia, Central America, parts of South America, southern Australia, parts of Africa, and parts of Antarctica.
The C3S report for March noted that, though the El Nino weather event continued to weaken in the Pacific Ocean, the average global sea surface temperature for March — 21.07C — was also the highest on record, marginally higher than the previous record in February of this year.
Deputy director of C3S, Samantha Burgess, said last month “continues the sequence of climate records toppling for both air temperature and ocean surface temperatures".
She also said that that stopping further warming requires “rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”.
March 2024 was also wetter than average for most of western Europe, with storms causing heavy rainfall over the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. It was also wetter than average in regions of Scandinavia and north-western Russia.
At the same time, the rest of Europe was predominantly drier than average, with pronounced below-average precipitation recorded over northwestern Norway.
Last month was also wetter than average in regions of North America, across Central Asia, in Japan, over much of the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, and parts of South America. March was also wetter than average in Australia.
Drier-than-average conditions were also in parts of the central US, in western Canada and northern Mexico, regions of Central Asia and China, as well as in southeastern Australia, most of southern Africa, and in South America.
In Ireland, most of the country saw above-average rainfall totals last month.
According to Met Éireann's climate report for March, 29 rainy days were recorded at weather stations at Shannon Airport and in Ballyhaise, Co Cavan.
Met Éireann's report also found that, nationally, mean air temperatures last month were above their long-term average (LTA) for March.
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