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Warmth continues to rule the globe. The March global climate report from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) finds that the March global surface temperature was 2.36 degrees Fahrenheit (1.31 Celsius) above the 20th-century average of 54.9 F (12.7 C). That makes March 2025 the third-warmest March on record. The NCEI Global Annual Temperature Outlook notes there is a 6% chance 2025 will rank as the warmest year on record.

Summary highlights of the report include: Temperatures were above average over much of the globe, notably in the Arctic. There were a few regions with temperatures that were much below normal -- central Canada and eastern Asia. Also, global sea ice extent was the second lowest on record for March; meanwhile, Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record. In addition, there were eight named storms across the globe in March, which was slightly above average.

Looking at continental temperature rankings, the report notes that Europe had its warmest March on record, South America its sixth warmest and Africa its third-warmest March. In North America, March was the seventh-warmest on record, and the first quarter of the calendar year (January-February-March) was the ninth warmest on record. The global land surface air temperatures ranked second warmest on record both for March and for the first quarter of the year. It's also worth noting that, while there were a few regions with temperatures ranking much below normal, there were almost no areas of record cold temperatures on a global scale in March.

Regarding sea ice and snow cover, the NCEI report noted that the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in March was well below average, ranking seventh smallest on record. Snow cover over North America and Greenland was below average (by 170,000 square miles), and Eurasia was also below average (by 550,000 square miles). A lack of snow cover was particularly obvious over the United States and Europe.

The Arctic temperatures, incidentally, are astonishing. In March 2025, Arctic temperature anomalies greater than 4.0 C (7.2 F) were widespread.

Besides the Arctic having its lowest sea ice extent on record, the extent of sea ice in the Antarctic was also down; it was the fourth smallest for January-March on record.

The full NCEI Global Climate Report is available here: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/….

Bryce Anderson can be reached at bryce.anderson@dtn.com

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