March broke nearly every global warm temperature record there is
The Earth has been on a hot streak of epic proportions, and March may have been its zenith.
The month broke nearly every temperature record there is to break, according to data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which builds on previously released data from NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency.
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These records were the result of long-term global warming, combined with the warming influence from a strong (though now waning) El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean, which pushed the climate system over the edge into record-smashing territory.
The El Niño event has functioned like a giant space heater for the atmosphere, releasing heat stored in the Pacific Ocean into the air.
The month was the warmest March on record the most unusually mild month on record -- beating the previous record set only the month before -- and set a milestone for the mildest first three months of any calendar year on record. The monthly temperature departure from average was 1.22 degrees Celsius, or 2.20 degrees Fahrenheit, above average.
This was the largest departure from average out of all of the 1,635 months in 137 years of record-keeping, surpassing the previous all-time record in February by just 0.01 degrees Celsius, or 0.02 degrees Fahrenheit.
Each of the past 11 months have been the warmest such months on record.
Each of the past 11 months have been the warmest such months on record. This is the longest such streak in NOAA's data.
Most of the world's land surfaces were milder or much milder than average -- particularly in eastern Brazil, most of eastern and central Africa, much of southeastern Asia, and large portions of northern and eastern Australia.
"Most of northwestern Canada and Alaska, along with vast regions of northern and western Asia, observed temperatures at least 3°C (5°F) above their 1981–2010 average," the NOAA report stated.
Interestingly, NOAA also said that temperature records were set in the lower and middle parts of the troposphere, as determined by satellites.
In general, atmospheric data has not shown as much warming to date as data at the Earth's surface, which has made this a favored metric for those who contest or simply deny mainstream climate science findings.
January to March 2016 was the mildest three-month period on record and also marked the highest departure from average for any three-month period on record.
This record has been broken in each of the past seven straight months, NOAA found.
The world's oceans also set high temperature milestones, "with record warmth extending from southern Africa to the North Indian Ocean to parts of southeastern Asia stretching into northern Australia," NOAA found.
"Additionally, parts of every inhabited continent and every major ocean basin had some regions with record warmth for the year-to-date," NOAA said.
It is questionable whether April will extend the record smashing streak by one more month, given the cooling Pacific sea surface temperatures that may herald a La Niña event.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
