March 2024 was warmer globally than any previous March in the data record, Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has said. 

At the same time, Australia’s private forecaster weatherzone said a large pool of cooler-than-average water beneath the surface of the tropical Pacific Ocean has emerged, showing that the lingering surface warmth is shallow. “March was 1.68°C warmer than an estimate of the March average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period,” said C3S, managed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

It was the tenth month in a row that was the warmest on record for the respective month of the year, it said. 

1.58°C above pre-industrial levels.

The average ERA5 — a dataset that is a reanalysis of hourly meteorological conditions back to 1979 — surface air temperature of 14.14°C was 0.73°C above the 1991-2020 average for March and 0.10°C above the previous high set in March 2016.

The global-average temperature for the past 12 months (April 2023 – March 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.70°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.58°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, the European agency said.

Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S, said March 2024 continued the sequence of climate records toppling for both air temperature and ocean surface temperatures, with the 10th consecutive record-breaking month. “The global average temperature is the highest on record, with the past 12 months being 1.58°C above pre-industrial levels. Stopping further warming requires rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,’’ she said.

The global sea surface temperature was the highest monthly value on record in March, averaging 21.07°C over 60°S–60°N. It was marginally above the 21.06°C recorded for February 2024. 

Strongest El Nino since 1950

Though the El Nino, the primary reason for the record higher temperatures since April 2023, continued to weaken in the eastern equatorial Pacific, marine air temperatures in general remained at an unusually high level, C3S said. 

March 2024 was wetter than average in regions across Central Asia, Japan, much of the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, North America, and parts of South America. Australia experienced an exceptionally wet month.

Drier-than-average conditions were seen in regions of Central Asia and China, in parts of central US, western Canada and northern Mexico, and in south-eastern Australia, most of southern Africa and South America.

Meanwhile, weatherzone said El Nino, which emerged in June 2023 and has turned out to be one of the strongest since 1950, has begun to “discharge”. This means the ocean currents begin to drive the warm water from the equator to the poles and restore equilibrium to the Pacific Ocean.

The El Nino has resulted in many parts of India receiving deficient rainfall since June 2023 with at least 25 per cent of the regions facing drought conditions. It has also resulted in the water level in the 150 major reservoirs dropping to 35 per cent of capacity with the situation in the southern region being grim.