NOAA's March map shows warm and cold anomalies on land masses and over the oceans.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY —A record heat wave in the eastern and central U.S. helped push March 2012 into the top 20 hottest years on record for planet Earth, with an average global temperature that was .83 degrees above the 20th century average. The last time global March temperatures were below average was in 1976; the last month on record with below average temps was February 1985, according to the monthly update from the National Climatic Data Center.

Overall, March 2012 was the 16th-warmest March on record, but the coolest since 1999. Global temperatures were marked by extreme warmth and cold across most land masses, especially in the northern hemisphere’s mid- and high latitudes, with warmer-than-average readings across most of Canada, the contiguous United States, Mexico, Argentina, Europe, and parts of northern and central Russia.

The contiguous 48 states of the U.S. reported the warmest March since record-keeping began in 1895, with an average temperature that was 8.6 degrees above the 20th century average.

Cooler-than-average readings were reported across most of Australia, Alaska, and western and eastern Russia. Australia reported its third-coolest March since record-keeping started in 1950, with all Australian states except Tasmania reporting below average readings. Cooler-than-average readings also prevailed across the northeastern and central Pacific Ocean, parts of southern Atlantic Ocean, and across the higher-latitudes of the southern oceans.

Other countries reporting near-record warmth in March included the UK, with temps running 4.5 degrees above average (third-warmest on record and the warmest since 1957), while Scotland tied 1938 for its warmest March on record. The average temperature in Denmark wass 6.5 degrees above the 1961 to 1990 March average, making it the fourth-warmest since record-keeping started in 1874. Norway reported its warmest March on record with an average temperature that was 7.7 degrees above average, and Austria reported its third-warmest March since record-keeping started in 1767.

The South Pole station in Antarctica reported above-average temperatures during March, with an average temperature 5 degrees above average. On March 8, a new daily maximum temperature record was set when temperatures soared to minus 26.1 degrees, surpassing the previous record of minus 29 degrees set in 1965.

Compiled from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, State of the Climate: Global Analysis for March 2012, published online April 2012, retrieved on April 17, 2012 from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2012/3.