Global Temperature: Temperature anomalies go on - March 2014 was the fourth warmest on record, at 0.71°C above the 20th century average of 12.3°C

According to the NOAA Climate National Climate Data Center, The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces during March was 0.72°C above the 20th century average. This marks the fourth highest for March since records began in 1880 and the highest since 2010. The difference is primarily due to warmer temperature anomalies over land surfaces.

 

Central Asia was particularly warm for March, with departures from average surpassing +5°C in parts of northern Siberia. Extreme warmth over Eurasia more than offset the colder-than-average temperatures over most of North America this month, with the Northern Hemisphere observing its fourth highest land surface temperature on record, at 1.59°C above the 20th century average. In the Southern Hemisphere, most of northern South America was much warmer than average, while part of northern Argentina was much cooler than average for March.

 

In particular, the monthly temperature in Austria tied with 1989 as the second highest for March since continuous national records began in 1767, at 2.8°C above the 1981–2010 average. The average temperature for March in Norway was 3.8°C above the 1981–2010 average. This marks the third warmest March since national records began in 1900. Denmark had its fourth warmest March since national records began in 1874, at 3.7°C above the 1961–1990 average. The March temperature in Germany was 2.6°C higher than the 1981–2010 average, tying with 2012 as the third warmest.

 

For the oceans, the globally-averaged sea surface temperature was the fifth highest on record for March, at 0.48°C above the 20th century average.

 

Now let’s analyze the January-March 2014 period. The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for the first quarter (January–March) of 2014 was the seventh warmest such period on record. This is particularly notable since February ranked only as the 21st warmest on record. However, January and March were both among the five warmest for their respective months. The warmth was relatively evenly distributed between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with each also observing their seventh warmest January–March on record.

 

Source: LTEconomy, elaboration on NOAA National Climate Data Center

 

LTEconomy, April 24^th, 2014

From NOAA Nacional Climate Data Center