Apr 16, 2010

Hottest March on record

WASHINGTON - GLOBAL temperatures fuelled by El Nino seasonal warming last month chalked up the hottest March on record, US weather monitors reported on Thursday.

'Warmer-than-normal conditions dominated the globe, especially in northern Africa, South Asia and Canada,' the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement.

Combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for March 2010 was the warmest on record at 13.5 deg C, which is 0.77 deg C above the 20th century average of 12.7 deg C, it said.

Average ocean temperatures were the hottest for any March since record-keeping began in 1880, while the global land surface was the fourth warmest for any March on record, NOAA said, citing analysis from the National Climate Data Center. It added that the January-March period was the planet's fourth warmest on record.

The US agency cited two Asian examples of high March mercury: Tibet had its second warmest March since records began in 1951, it said citing the Beijing Climate Center, while Delhi, India had its own second warmest March since 1901 record-keeping, according to the India Meteorological Department.

The record March temperatures are likely to give further ammunition to those who believe climate change is an urgent crisis which must be addressed at the global level. The United Nations and several countries have called for a legally-binding agreement on climate change, but at a summit in Copenhagen in December states failed to agree on a deadline to reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming. -- AFP

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