“Daytime maximum temperatures were particularly high, averaging 11.4°F above the March average and 0.9°F above the long-term April average,” NCEI noted. “Ten states had their warmest March on record: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. In all of these states, average temperatures exceeded April averages, and California exceeded May’s average temperature by 0.7°F.”
(Photo by NOAA NCEI)
In a social media thread about the findings, Shel Winkley, senior engagement specialist and meteorologist at Climate Central, said: He stressed That “our overheating planet played a major role.”
“Of 192 cities analyzed by Climate Central, 111 saw heat rise for at least a week.” [more than two times] He noted that this was likely due to human-caused global warming. The Southwest averaged 25 out of 31 days with the potential for heat at least twice as high.
He said the “most surprising” statistic is that “on March 20, 29% of the Lower 48 region experienced high temperatures.” [more than five times] Most likely due to our warm weather. Simply put: heat that would be almost impossible without that fingerprint.”
Winkly He said The Associated Press said that “what we saw in March across the United States was unprecedented,” while Yale University meteorologist Jeff Masters said the new batch of broken records “tells us that climate change is bothering us.”
“January to March was the driest period on record for the contiguous United States,” Masters said. “So it was not only hot, it was dry.” “This is a bad combination for water availability, agriculture, river levels and navigation.”
Looking ahead, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned, “Drought is expected to persist and expand across much of the interior of the West, Southwest, Rocky Mountains, and High Plains, as well as parts of the South, Southeast, and mid-Atlantic… There is a high potential for above-normal wildland fires across parts of the Southwest, Southern Plains, Central High Plains, and much of the Deep South and Southeast.”
The AP also noted that both the US agency and Europe’s Copernicus “expect very strong growth.” The child To form within a few months and intensify in winter. Meteorologists expect already warm temperatures to rise around the world, likely exceeding maximum temperatures The hottest year is 2024“.
Already, with governments around the world, including the Trump administration backed by Big Oil, refusing to take actions that the scientific community argues are necessary to address the climate emergency – most notably the rapid transition away from fossil fuels that drive global warming – humanity faces deadly conditions during heatwaves.
to He studies The researchers, published last month in the journal Nature Communications, studied heat waves in Mecca, Saudi Arabia (2024); Bangkok, Thailand (2024); Phoenix, Arizona, United States (2023); Mount Isa, Australia (2019); Larkana, Pakistan (2015); and Seville, Spain (2003). During each, they found periods of “unlivable” conditions for people 65 and older in direct sunlight.
“My first thought was: ‘Oh my gosh, I really didn’t expect to see that, especially when you zoom in on individual cities,'” said Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick, lead author of the study and a professor at the Australian National University. He said The Guardian newspaper in a report published on Wednesday. “If this is already happening now, what does a future of two or three degrees warmer hold?”
Bill McGuire, a volcanologist and emeritus professor at University College London, shared the report on social media. He said“As some of us have been saying for a long time, dangerous climate breakdown is already here, and it is killing people — now, today.”
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