March tied with three previous years as the warmest on record in 2023, according to an analysis from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service.
March 2023 tied with the years 2017-2020 as the second-warmest on record in terms of surface-air temperature, with only March 2016 hitting warmer temperatures, according to the data.
Even more intense temperatures may be in store for later this year.
The record March 2016 warmth was fueled by an El Niño pattern, another of which is likely to arrive this summer.
Notably, the central and western regions of North America saw a much colder March than the rest of the world, with the West in particular seeing an unusually wet winter that somewhat alleviated the drought that has plagued the region for two decades. San Francisco also saw its lowest daily highs for March since at least 1872, according to the analysis.
To the north, Winnipeg in central Canada saw temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius throughout the month for what is thought to be the first time in over a century.
Temperatures were lower than average across much of northern Europe for the month too. However, a large area of the world — including North Africa, southwestern Russia and the majority of the Asian continent, with Morocco, China and Japan — set warmth records for the month. The northeastern regions of the U.S. and Canada also saw highs that were unprecedented in some cases, according to Copernicus.
Michael Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Hill the March temperatures have ominous implications for the warming trend ahead.
“We’ve published a couple articles showing that we can continue to expect [to] break global temperature records as long as warming continues, with natural variability due to factors like El Nino adding to the steady warming trend to procedure ever-warmer records over time,” Mann said in an email.
“Warmer surface temperatures are giving us dramatic glacial melt, sea level rise, fierce superstorms, heat waves, droughts and wildfires,” he continued. “That will only stop getting worse when the warming ends, which in turn will only happen when we reduce net emissions to zero.”