The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has confirmed that March 2024 was the tenth consecutive month to break the global temperature record since records began. This month just ended was the warmest March in recorded history, with an average surface air temperature of 14.14°C, which is 0.73°C above the 1991-2020 average for that month and 0.10°C above the temperature of March 2016, which to date held the record for the third month of the year.
C3S, implemented through the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission, also notes that last March was the tenth consecutive warmest month on record for the respective month. To be more precise, March 2024 was 1.68ºC warmer than the estimated average between 1850-1900, the pre-industrial reference period.
The Copernicus service states that the global average temperature of the last twelve months (April 2023 to March 2024) is the highest since there are records, being 0.70°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.58°C above the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900.
At the European level, the average European temperature was 2.12°C above the March average in the period 1991-2020, making the month the second warmest March recorded on the continent, only 0.02° C cooler than 2014. Central and Eastern Europe were the regions where temperatures were above average to the greatest extent.
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S, underlined the significance of the situation: "March 2024 continues the sequence of broken climate records in both air and ocean surface temperatures, and to stop warming it is necessary to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
C3S publishes monthly climate bulletins that report on variations in surface air and sea surface temperatures, sea ice coverage, and hydrological variables on a global scale. All results are based on computer-generated analysis using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
Regarding the sea surface temperature, according to the Coperniucs Climate Change Service, it reached 21.07°C in March, the highest monthly value on record and slightly higher than the 21.06°C in February. . The database refers to temperatures recorded at the coordinates 60°S-60°N, outside the limits of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.
Likewise, the El Niño phenomenon continued to weaken in the eastern equatorial Pacific, although marine air temperatures generally remained at an unusually high level.
Outside Europe, the air thermometer was above average in eastern North America, Greenland, eastern Russia, Central America, parts of South America, parts of Africa, southern Australia and parts of Antarctica.
Copernicus also reported that Arctic sea ice extent reached its annual maximum in March, with the monthly value slightly below average but marking the largest extent for a month of March since 2013. Concentrations remained above average. medium in the Greenland Sea, a persistent feature since last October.
In contrast, Antarctic sea ice extent was 20% below average in March, making it the sixth lowest extent for that month in the satellite data record. This continues the series of large negative anomalies observed since 2017. In the northern Weddell Sea and in the Ross-Amundsen Sea sector where sea ice concentrations were mostly below average.
Despite the record record, March 2024 was a wetter than average month in 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 northwestern Russia. However, in the rest of Europe it was a predominantly drier than average month, with rainfall well below average in northwest Norway.
