Last month marked the hottest March in modern history and the 11th consecutive month in which a monthly global temperature record was broken, US officials said Tuesday. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that the string of record-setting months is the longest in its 137 years of record-keeping. The globally-averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for March 2016 "was the highest for the month of March in the NOAA global temperature dataset record, which dates back to 1880," the agency said.
Planet-wide, the average temperature was 2.20 degrees Fahrenheit (1.22 Celsius) above the 20th century average of 54.9 F (12.7 C), NOAA's report said. "This surpassed the previous record set in 2015 by 0.58 F (0.32 C), and marks the highest monthly temperature departure among all 1,635 months on record." These temperature spikes are a cause of concern in the scientific community because they indicate the pace of global warming is accelerating.
Last year was the hottest on record, edging out 2014, which held the title previously. "Overall, the nine highest monthly temperature departures in the record have all occurred in the past nine months," NOAA said. "March 2016 also marks the 11th consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken, the longest such streak in NOAA's 137 years of record-keeping."