State of the Climate
Global Analysis
March 2006

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Climatic Data Center

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Global Highlights:

Based on preliminary data, globally averaged combined land and sea surface temperature was 7th warmest on record for March 2006.
March 2006 temperatures were above average in Mexico, the U.S. Great Plains and much of Asia. Colder-than-average conditions occurred in Alaska, Europe, and the western U.S.
Precipitation during March 2006 was above average in the U.S. southern Plains, most of Brazil and southeast Asia, with drier-than-average conditions in eastern Australia, the U.S. East Coast and parts of Argentina.
ENSO conditions during March indicate the presence of a weak La Niña episode.

The data presented in this report are preliminary. Ranks and anomalies may change as more complete data are received and processed. The most current data may be accessed via the Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page.

Introduction

Temperature anomalies for March 2006 are shown on the two maps below. The dot map on the left provides a spatial representation of anomalies calculated from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) data set of land surface stations using a 1961-1990 base period. The map on the right is a product of a merged land surface and sea surface temperature anomaly analysis which is based on data from the GHCN of land temperatures and the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) of Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) data. Temperature anomalies with respect to 1961-1990 for land and ocean are analyzed separately and then merged to form the global analysis. Additional information on this product is available.

During March 2006, there were above average temperatures in the U.S. Great Plains, Mexico, Algeria, Peru, Greenland and much of Asia. Cooler than average temperatures were observed in Europe, Alaska, South Africa and the western coast of British Columbia.

During January-March 2006, there were above average temperatures in the majority of North America, central Africa, much of Asia and Greenland. Cooler than average temperatures were observed in eastern Europe, Alaska and Russia.

In January-March and March 2006, warmer than average SSTs occurred in the South Pacific and the North Atlantic. Cooler than average conditions were observed in the Niño 3.4 region, indicative of the La Niña episode that developed by mid-January, and also off the coast of western Australia. Please see the latest ENSO discussion for further information.

Current month's Land SurfaceTemperature Dot map

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Current month's blended Land and sea surface Temperature Dot map

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The mean position of upper level ridges of high pressure and troughs of low pressure (depicted by positive and negative 500 millibar height anomalies on the March 2006 map) are generally reflected by areas of positive and negative temperature anomalies at the surface, respectively. For other Global products see the Climate Monitoring Global Products page.

Images of sea surface temperature conditions are available for all weeks during 2006 at the weekly SST page.

Temperature Rankings and Graphics

Effective with the January 2006 report, NCDC transitioned from the use of the Operational Global Surface Temperature Index (Quayle et al. 1999) to the blended land and ocean dataset developed by Smith and Reynolds (2005). The differences between the two methods are discussed in Smith et al. 2005.

Current Month / Year-to-date

March	Anomaly	Rank	Warmest Year on Record
Global Land Ocean Land and Ocean	+1.02°C (+1.84°F) +0.38°C (+0.68°F) +0.55°C (+0.99°F)	7th warmest 7th warmest 7th warmest	1990 (+1.45°C/2.61°F) 1998 (+0.51°C/0.92°F) 2002 (+0.73°C/1.31°F)
Northern Hemisphere Land Ocean Land and Ocean	+1.21°C (+2.18°F) +0.33°C (+0.59°F) +0.66°C (+1.19°F)	8th warmest 6th warmest 6th warmest	1990 (+1.99°C/3.58°F) 2004 (+0.49°C/0.88°F) 1990 (+0.90°C/1.62°F)
Southern Hemisphere Land Ocean Land and Ocean	+0.45°C (+0.81°F) +0.43°C (+0.77°F) +0.44°C (+0.79°F)	13th warmest 7th warmest 9th warmest	1988 (+1.60°C/2.88°F) 1998 (+0.55°C/0.99°F) 1988 (+0.63°C/1.13°F)

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January-March	Anomaly	Rank	Warmest Year on Record
Global Land Ocean Land and Ocean	+0.75°C (+1.35°F) +0.38°C (+0.68°F) +0.48°C (+0.86°F)	11th warmest 6th warmest 7th warmest	2002 (+1.50°C/2.70°F) 1998 (+0.53°C/0.95°F) 2002 (+0.72°C/1.30°F)
Northern Hemisphere Land Ocean Land and Ocean	+0.80°C (+1.44°F) +0.32°C (+0.58°F) +0.50°C (+0.90°F)	12th warmest 6th warmest 10th warmest	2002 (+1.88°C/3.38°F) 1998 (+0.50°C/0.90°F) 2002 (+0.95°C/1.71°F)
Southern Hemisphere Land Ocean Land and Ocean	+0.60°C (+1.08°F) +0.44°C (+0.79°F) +0.46°C (+0.83°F)	5th warmest 7th warmest 7th warmest	1998 (+0.86°C/1.55°F) 1998 (+0.56°C/1.01°F) 1998 (+0.60°C/1.08°F)

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The most current data may be accessed via the Global Surface Temperature Anomalies page.

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Precipitation

The maps below represent anomaly values based on the GHCN data set of land surface stations using a base period of 1961-1990. During March 2006, above average precipitation fell over areas that include the U.S. southern Plains, Brazil, India, far eastern Europe, southeast Asia and parts of the U.S. Ohio Valley. Below average precipitation was observed in Iceland, South Africa, the western coast of Canada and the U.S. East Coast.

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ENSO SST Analysis

Last week of the month's ENSO condtions Map

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Sea Surface Temperatures were cooler than average across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, indicative of La Niña conditions (shown in the adjacent animation of weekly sea surface temperature anomalies). A comprehensive summary of March 2006 ENSO conditions can be found on the ENSO monitoring page. For the latest advisory on ENSO conditions go to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the CPC ENSO Diagnostic Discussion
Images of sea surface temperature conditions are available for all weeks during 2006 at the weekly SST page

Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent

Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent, as measured from passive microwave instruments onboard NOAA satellites, was the lowest for any March on record in 2006 at 14.5 million square kilometers (image to the right). The previous March record was set in 2005 with 14.8 million square kilometers. This is 1.2 million square kilometers below the long-term (1979-2000) mean. For further information on Northern Hemisphere snow and ice cover during March, please see the Northern Hemisphere Snow and Ice page and the press release issued on April 5th by the NOAA's National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Monthly sea ice extent for the Northern Hemisphere

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Troposphere

Current Month
Mid-tropospheric and lower stratospheric temperature data are collected by NOAA's TIROS-N polar-orbiting satellites and adjusted for time-dependent biases by the Global Hydrology and Climate Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). An independent analysis is also performed by Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) and a third analysis has been performed by Dr. Qiang Fu of the the University of Washington (UW) (Fu et al. 2004)**.

The table below summarizes mid-tropospheric conditions for March 2006. These temperatures are for the atmospheric layer centered in the mid-troposphere (approximately 2-6 miles above the Earth's surface) which also includes a portion of the lower stratosphere. (The MSU channel used to measure mid-tropospheric temperatures receives about 25 percent of its signal above 6 miles). For additional information on MSU data used in this report, please see the Microwave Sounding Unit page.

All datasets indicate boreal winter temperatures and March temperatures were above average. Records began in 1979.

March	Anomaly	Rank	Warmest Year on Record	Trend
UAH mid-trop	+0.10°C/0.18°F	10th warmest	1998 (+0.49°C/0.88°F)	+0.04°C/decade
*RSS mid-trop	+0.20°C/0.36°F	8th warmest	1998 (+0.54°C/0.97°F)	+0.12°C/decade
**UW-UAH mid-trop	+0.23°C/0.41°F	6th warmest	1998 (+0.61°C/1.10°F)	+0.10°C/decade
*UW-RSS mid-trop	+0.34°C/0.61°F	5th warmest	1998 (+0.65°C/1.17°F)	+0.18°C/decade

*Version 02_1

Stratosphere

Current Month
The table below summarizes stratospheric conditions for March 2006. On average, the stratosphere is located approximately between 10-14 miles above the Earth's surface. Over the last decade, stratospheric temperatures have been below average in large part due to the depletion of ozone. The large increase in temperature in 1982 was caused by the volcanic eruption of El Chichon in Mexico, and the increase in 1991 was a result of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines. Therefore the base period used is 1984-1990 which was chosen to avoid contamination by these eruptions.

March	Anomaly	Rank	Coolest Year on Record
UAH stratosphere	-0.66°C (-1.19°F)	2nd coolest	1999 (-0.73°C/-1.31°F)
*RSS stratosphere	-0.78°C (-1.40°F)	coolest	2nd - 1999 (-0.74°C/-1.33°F)

*Version 02_1

For additional details on precipitation and temperatures in March, see the Global Hazards page.

References

Christy, John R., R.W. Spencer, and W.D. Braswell, 2000: MSU Tropospheric Temperatures: Dataset Construction and Radiosonde Comparisons. J. of Atmos. and Oceanic Technology 17 1153-1170.

Fu, Q., C.M. Johanson, S.G. Warren, and D.J. Seidel, 2004: Contribution of stratospheric cooling to satellite-inferred tropospheric temperature trends. Nature, 429, 55-58.

Mears, Carl A., M.C. Schabel, F.J. Wentz, 2003: A Reanalysis of the MSU Channel 2 Tropospheric Temperature Record. J. Clim 16, 3650-3664.

Peterson, T.C. and R.S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Database. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 78, 2837-2849.

Quayle, R. G., T. C. Peterson, A. N. Basist, and C. S. Godfrey, 1999: An operational near-real-time global temperature index. Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 333-335.

Smith, T. M., and R. W. Reynolds (2005), A global merged land air and sea surface temperature reconstruction based on historical observations (1880-1997), J. Clim., 18, 2021-2036.