March 2016 was nominally the warmest month in the global temperature record maintained by the UK Meteorological Office – just.
The analysis of global surface temperatures in March from Britain’s Met Office shows that the month was a statistical hair’s breadth warmer than February 2016 making it nominally the warmest month in its records which date back to 1850. However, the difference of 0.002oC is far less than the uncertainty in the data and the difference is statistically meaningless, so the two months are tied for the top spot.
The global surface temperature anomaly – or variance to the long-term average between 1961 and 1990 – reported by the Met Office for March 2016 was +1.063oC, compared with +1.061oC reported in February and +0.908oC reported in January. These record high anomalies have been pushed up partly as a result of the El Niño Pacific Ocean warming event.
US space agency NASA released data last month showing that March 2016 was the second warmest month in the surface temperature record it maintains, ranking behind February 2016.
Met Office data.