World Marks New Global Heat Record In March

The world just experienced its warmest March on record, the 10th straight month of historic heat, as sea surface temperatures also hit a new high, according to Europe’s climate monitoring agency.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday that March averaged 14.14 degrees Celsius (57.9 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record from 2016 by a 10th of a degree. The month was also 1.68C (35F) hotter than an average March between the years 1850-1900, the reference period for the pre-industrial era.

Hotter Seas, Wilder Weather

Ocean surface temperatures also set a new global record in March, even as an El Nino, a climatic condition that warms the central Pacific and changes global weather patterns, began to wane.

The global sea surface temperature averaged 21.07C (69.93F) during the month, the highest monthly value on record and slightly higher than what was recorded in February, C3S said.

Oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and help keep the climate liveable by absorbing 90 percent of the excess heat resulting from carbon dioxide and methane emissions produced by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

“The trajectory will not change until concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop rising,” Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Jennifer Francis told the Associated Press news agency, “which means we must stop burning fossil fuels, stop deforestation, and grow our food more sustainably as quickly as possible”.

Hotter seas produce more moisture in the atmosphere, leading to increasingly erratic weather, including strong winds and heavy rain.

Hotter seas also increase the danger of mass coral bleaching events, with marine scientists warning last month that a mass bleaching was already unfolding in the Southern Hemisphere and could be the worst in the planet’s history._Al Jazeera