March 2026 was record-warm for the Lower 48.

The Version 6.1 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for March, 2026 was +0.38 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean, statistically unchanged from the February, 2026 value of +0.39 deg. C.

The Version 6.1 global area-averaged linear temperature trend (January 1979 through March 2026) remains at +0.16 deg/ C/decade (+0.22 C/decade over land, +0.13 C/decade over oceans).

The following table lists various regional Version 6.1 LT departures from the 30-year (1991-2020) average for the last 27 months (record highs are in red).

YEAR	MO	GLOBE	NHEM	SHEM	TROPIC	USA48	ARCTIC	AUST
2024	Jan	+0.80	+1.02	+0.57	+1.20	-0.19	+0.40	+1.12
2024	Feb	+0.88	+0.94	+0.81	+1.16	+1.31	+0.85	+1.16
2024	Mar	+0.88	+0.96	+0.80	+1.25	+0.22	+1.05	+1.34
2024	Apr	+0.94	+1.12	+0.76	+1.15	+0.86	+0.88	+0.54
2024	May	+0.77	+0.77	+0.78	+1.20	+0.04	+0.20	+0.52
2024	June	+0.69	+0.78	+0.60	+0.85	+1.36	+0.63	+0.91
2024	July	+0.73	+0.86	+0.61	+0.96	+0.44	+0.56	-0.07
2024	Aug	+0.75	+0.81	+0.69	+0.74	+0.40	+0.88	+1.75
2024	Sep	+0.81	+1.04	+0.58	+0.82	+1.31	+1.48	+0.98
2024	Oct	+0.75	+0.89	+0.60	+0.63	+1.89	+0.81	+1.09
2024	Nov	+0.64	+0.87	+0.40	+0.53	+1.11	+0.79	+1.00
2024	Dec	+0.61	+0.75	+0.47	+0.52	+1.41	+1.12	+1.54
2025	Jan	+0.45	+0.70	+0.21	+0.24	-1.07	+0.74	+0.48
2025	Feb	+0.50	+0.55	+0.45	+0.26	+1.03	+2.10	+0.87
2025	Mar	+0.57	+0.73	+0.41	+0.40	+1.24	+1.23	+1.20
2025	Apr	+0.61	+0.76	+0.46	+0.36	+0.81	+0.85	+1.21
2025	May	+0.50	+0.45	+0.55	+0.30	+0.15	+0.75	+0.98
2025	June	+0.48	+0.48	+0.47	+0.30	+0.80	+0.05	+0.39
2025	July	+0.36	+0.49	+0.23	+0.45	+0.32	+0.40	+0.53
2025	Aug	+0.39	+0.39	+0.39	+0.16	-0.06	+0.82	+0.11
2025	Sep	+0.53	+0.56	+0.49	+0.35	+0.38	+0.77	+0.30
2025	Oct	+0.53	+0.52	+0.55	+0.24	+1.12	+1.42	+1.67
2025	Nov	+0.43	+0.59	+0.27	+0.24	+1.32	+0.78	+0.36
2025	Dec	+0.30	+0.45	+0.15	+0.19	+2.10	+0.32	+0.37
2026	Jan	+0.35	+0.51	+0.19	+0.09	+0.30	+1.40	+0.95
2026	Feb	+0.39	+0.54	+0.23	+0.03	+1.91	-0.48	+0.73
2026	Mar	+0.38	+0.33	+0.42	+0.07	+3.74	-0.48	+1.14
YEAR	MO	GLOBE	NHEM	SHEM	TROPIC	USA48	ARCTIC	AUST

Record Warmth in the Contiguous U.S. (Lower 48)

For the Lower 48, the March 2026 temperature anomaly was easily the record warmest of all months in the 47+ year satellite record: +3.7 deg. C above average for all Marches. Second place goes to March 2012, with +2.2 deg. C above the mean, while 3rd place goes to December 2025 at +2.1 deg. C.

Interestingly, December through April are periods of large variability for the Lower 48. All 6 of the warmest months (in terms of departures from normal) since 1979 occurred in December through April. Furthermore, all 8 of the coldest months occurred in December through April.

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The full UAH Global Temperature Report, along with the LT global gridpoint anomaly map for March, 2026 and a more detailed analysis by John Christy, should be available within the next several days here.

The monthly anomalies for various regions for the four deep layers we monitor from satellites will be available in the next several days at the following locations:

Lower Troposphere

Mid-Troposphere

Tropopause

Lower Stratosphere

I’m told by John Christy that there has been considerable discussion amongst the state climatologists about March temperatures in the U.S. setting a new record. If true, the media will no doubt lecture us on how this is evidence for global warming. (Why do we never hear about cool months being evidence against global warming?)

It is human nature to think the weather we experience has some sort of global significance. But look at NOAA’s best estimate of March 2026 temperature departures from “normal” (1991-2020 average) over North America (below). Yeah, the U.S. was unusually warm. But what about all the unusual chill over the northern parts of North America? Alaska and most of Canada were below normal.

UAH Satellite Lower Tropospheric Temperatures for March 2026

As part of our monthly global temperature updates (posted separately) here are the March temperature departures from normal for the lower troposphere, 1979 through 2026 in the Lower 48 (top panel of Fig. 2). Last month was clearly the warmest in the 48-year satellite temperature record.

But when we examine the bottom panel in Fig. 2 we see that, averaged over all land areas of the Northern Hemisphere (including Canada and Alaska), March 2026 was uneventful, and was even cooler than 2024 and 2025. In fact, 2026 was right on the long-term trend line.

The message here is that the unusual (and likely record) warmth of March 2026 in the U.S. was largely due to normal month-to-month weather variations, while the large-scale climate signal shows March was a continuation of the slow (and largely benign, and possibly even beneficial) warming trend we have been experiencing in recent decades.