Last month was the second warmest March on record and it was also the 20th time in the last 21 months that the average global surface air temperature was more than 1.5°C above the monthly pre-industrial level, Copernicus Climate Change Service report stated on Tuesday.
It was the second-warmest March globally after March 2024, with an average surface air temperature of 14.06°C, 0.65°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.60°C above the pre-industrial level for March.
Further, the 12-month period of April 2024 – March 2025 was 0.71°C above the 1991-2020 average, and 1.59°C above the pre-industrial level.
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It was the warmest March ever for Europe. The average temperature over European land for March 2025 was 6.03°C, 2.41°C above the 1991-2020 average for March, making it the warmest March for Europe.
Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over large parts of the Arctic, in particular over the Canadian Archipelago and Baffin Bay. They were also above average over the United States, Mexico, parts of Asia, and Australia.
“March 2025 was the warmest March for Europe highlighting once again how temperatures are continuing to break records. It was also a month with contrasting rainfall extremes across Europe with many areas experiencing their driest March on record and others their wettest March on record for at least the past 47 years,” said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) remained unusually high in many ocean basins and seas.
Some seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea and the northeast North Atlantic, saw larger record-breaking areas than last month.
Arctic sea ice reached its lowest monthly extent for March in the 47-year satellite record, at 6% below average marking the fourth consecutive month in which the sea ice extent has set a record low for the time of year.
In the Arctic region, sea ice concentrations were below average in most ocean sectors outside the central Arctic Ocean, particularly in the Barents Sea and Sea of Okhotsk.
Antarctic sea ice recorded its fourth lowest monthly extent for March, at 24% below average. In the Antarctic region, sea ice concentrations were below average in most ocean sectors, with the exception of the western Weddell Sea.
El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) neutral conditions are likely from April to August 2025, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center said last month.
El Niño weather pattern that began in May 2023 and ended in May 2024 caused extreme heat in several parts of the world. However, even during the subsequent weak La Niña phase which emerged in December and typically brings cooler temperatures, many countries including India logged record temperatures.
La Nina refers to the large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, coupled with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation, such as winds, pressure and rainfall. El Nino is just the opposite, it represents the warm phase of the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle.
In India, an El Nino is associated with a harsher summer and weaker monsoon. La Nina, meanwhile, is associated with a strong monsoon, above average rains and colder winters.
However, naturally occurring climate events such as La Nina and El Nino are taking place in the broader context of the human-induced climate crisis, which is raising global temperatures, exacerbating extreme weather and climate, and impacting seasonal rainfall and temperature patterns, WMO has warned.
Global warming reached an estimated 1.36°C in October 2024. If the past 30 year warming trend continues, global warming would reach 1.5°C by June 2030, Copernicus Climate Change Service projected in its forecast.
“The issue is we currently do not have an agreed mechanism to monitor global temperature rise in the context of the Paris Agreement goals. For example, which dataset to go by, how do we define warming– surface temperature or air temperature, there are number of questions around this. So how quickly we will breach the 1.5°C goal is difficult to answer. In 2023-2024 temperatures have been higher than expected compared to background warming. It is being studied if this is a result of reduction in aerosols from certain sectors,” a WMO expert said in March during the launch of State of the Global Climate report has said.
The report said that we are a fraction of a degree away from breaching the 1.5°C goal or the lower limit of the Paris Agreement.