March 2025 Sets Record as Hottest Month in US History, NOAA Data Indicates

Washington — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released data on Wednesday indicating that March 2025 registered as the hottest March on record for the Lower 48 states. 35 degrees above the 20th-century average for March. 9 degrees set in March 2012, making March 2025 the most abnormally hot month in the 132-year record for the contiguous United States.

4 degrees above the 20th-century average, nearly one degree warmer than the typical April daytime high. NOAA data also shows that six of the top 10 most abnormally hot months in the contiguous United States have occurred in the last 10 years. 57 degrees above the 20th-century norm, ranking as the 10th highest deviation.

than 19,800 daily high temperature records were broken across the country in March 2025, according to meteorologist Guy Walton, who analyzes NOAA data.

Over 2,000 locations set monthly heat records, a number exceeding those set in entire decades previously. On March 20 and 21, approximately one-third of the nation experienced heat that Climate Central calculated as virtually impossible without human-caused climate change. The 12-month period from April 2024 to March 2025 was the warmest on record for the contiguous United States, per NOAA.

January through March 2025 was the driest period on record for the region. These conditions affected water availability, agriculture, river levels, and navigation.

NOAA and the European climate service Copernicus forecast a strong El Niño to form in the coming months and intensify into winter 2025-2026.

5 degrees Celsius above normal. 5 degrees Celsius, and both agencies predict this event to exceed 2 degrees Celsius, potentially rivaling records from 2015 and 2016. El Niño releases stored ocean heat into the atmosphere, leading to global temperature increases with a lag of several months, according to Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini.

This could push global temperatures to new records in late 2026 and 2027. The event may alter weather patterns worldwide, following its cyclical nature.