NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
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Temperature
| As shown in the figure above, global surface temperatures were well above the 1880-1999 long-term mean in March. Global temperatures for land and ocean surfaces combined were 0.54C above average making March 2000 the 4th warmest such month since 1880. As in recent months, the warm land/ocean anomaly was predominately a reflection of much above-average land surface temperatures. While March sea surface temperatures (0.26C above average) were the coolest since 1994, temperatures averaged over global land surfaces were the second warmest on record, 1.2C above the long-term mean. |
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The adjacent map shows the spatial distribution of land surface temperature anomalies in March. The contrast between much above-normal temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere and near-normal to below-normal temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere has persisted in recent months. (See time series of monthly temperature anomalies below.) |
| Some of the largest anomalies continued to be recorded throughout North America, particularly in Canada and Alaska. Temperatures were more than 3C above the 1961-1990 mean in many parts of a region that stretched from Alaska across Canada and into the Northern Plains of the United States. Temperature anomalies greater than 3C were also observed in Central Asia, with some areas reporting temperatures in excess of 7C above normal. Widespread areas of above normal temperatures were also recorded throughout Europe and parts of North Africa. The only large area of below normal temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere occurred in the eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asia, where temperatures were from 1C to 3C below normal. Temperatures were near normal in South America, Southeast Asia, and throughout the islands of the western Pacific. |
| As shown in the figures below, land surface temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere have been below normal in recent months while temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere continue to run much above normal. |
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Precipitation
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Precipitation was above normal in parts of the central United States, central sections of South America and parts of northern and central Europe. Heavy rains fell in Slovakia and Hungary causing flooding in this region for the second year in a row. |
| Rainfall was also much above normal throughout much of Southeast Asia and the western half of Australia. Areas in Northwest Australia received record rainfall from Tropical Cyclone Steve including Broome Australia which received 493mm (19.4 in) of precipitation in March, 388 mm (15.3 in) above it's 1961-1990 average. Drier than normal conditions prevailed across much of the eastern half of the United States, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean in March. Precipitation deficits in excess of 2 inches (50 mm) were recorded in many locations within these regions. |