Records show that last month was the second hottest March on Earth.
- Last month was the second warmest March on record.
- This is reported by the EU Climate Monitoring Agency.
- Additionally, Antarctic sea ice is shrinking at the second lowest rate in recorded history.
- For climate change news and analysis, visit News24 Climate Future.
Planet Earth had its second-warmest March on record as Antarctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest extent, the EU’s climate monitoring agency said Thursday.
“The month was the joint second warmest March globally,” the Copernicus Climate Change Service report said.
The report is based on computer analysis using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
Temperatures were said to be above average in southern and central Europe and below average in much of northern Europe.
They were much warmer than average over much of North Africa, southwestern Russia, Asia, northeastern North America, South America, including drought-stricken Argentina, Australia, and coastal Antarctica.
By contrast, western and central North America was much colder than average, the agency said.
Global warming is causing sea ice to decline and sea levels to rise, prompting warnings that dangerous tipping points may be reached.
Copernicus said Antarctic sea ice extent in March was the second lowest in the 45-year satellite data record, 28 percent below average.
For the second year in a row, it hit the smallest area on record in February, continuing a decade-long decline.
Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice extent in the north was four percent below average and the fourth lowest on record for March, although concentrations were above average in the Greenland Sea.
As global temperatures rise due to human-induced climate change, data from Copernicus show that the past eight years have been the eight warmest years on record.
A UN report warned in March that those record temperatures would be among the coldest in three to four decades as global temperatures rise even if planet-warming emissions fall rapidly.