Last month ranks in top 10 list of warmest months of March since 1885: NOAA

This map from NOAA shows where the land and ocean temperatures varied from the normal. The dark red shows the places where temperatures were at least 5 C higher than usual.

March was a warm one — in fact, on land and on sea, the month made it into the top 10 warmest in 125 years, according to a report released April 18 from the National Climatic Data Center of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to NOAA scientists, the globally-averaged temperature for March 2013 tied with March 2006 as the 10th warmest March since record keeping began in 1880.

It also marked the 37th consecutive March and 337th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average.

The last below-average March temperature occurred in March 1976, with the last below-average temperature for any month recorded in February 1985.

Many areas of the world experienced higher-than-average monthly temperatures this past March.

Canada’s eastern Arctic, part of western Greenland, and sections of central Asia observed temperatures that were at least 5 C above average, NOAA said.

For the ocean, the March global sea surface temperature was 0.41 C above the 20th century average of 15.9 C, making it the ninth warmest March on record.

The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the January–March period (year-to-date) was 0.58 C above the 20th century average of 12.3 C, making it the eighth warmest such period on record.