March 2014 – 4th warmest on record

March 2014 was the fourth warmest ever recorded in 135 years of global temperature monitoring. On average, the globe was 1.3 F warmer than normal. Siberia was a whopping 9 degrees F warmer and Denmark and Norway were up by 7 degrees F.

No so here, you say? You’d be correct – in the US, the temperature this March was 1 F cooler than normal and the 43rd coolest on record.

Figure 1. Departure of temperature from average for March 2014. Image credit: National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) .

What’s up with that? Well there are some general speculations linked with global warming trends, but also some folks who say the cooler US winter weather is just that, weather.

Check out this blog for more on links between ocean circulation, climate, and weather: http://www.theicct.org/blogs/staff/context-matters-making-case-black-carbon-mitigation-arctic

More info on March 2014 temps: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2669

This study talks about long term (4,000 year) cycles: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140416090305.htm

Article in Time discussing the same issue: http://science.time.com/2014/01/06/climate-change-driving-cold-weather/