The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).
Main Topic: Burst of Record Warmth Occurring Across U.S. at End of March
Dear Diary. Ominously a relatively dry weather pattern has set in across the southern U.S. while ridging aloft, aided by climate change, is heating land areas such that record warmth will be had by many at the end of March.
We can see that effect today on a climate Reanalyzer chart:
At 500 millibars the peak of this warm pattern will occur today and Wednesday over the West and South:
Could Pheonix Arizona have its earliest 100°F reading on record today? That’s possible the next couple of days since the earliest such reading was on 3/26/1988.
I’ll be listing western records right below this post late tonight.
Most disturbing is that dry warm weather has aided in the development of wildfires across the Carolinas and other areas across the U.S. An older story on that is linked here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/03/24/north-carolina-wildfires-jersey-florida
The Drought Monitor depicts pockets of dry areas which are becoming more widespread this spring:
It’s interesting that the ridge aloft is collocated across the Southwest over the driest area of the country. Drought feeds record heat and vice a versa.
Though no too seasons are the same, this one reminds me of Spring/Summer 2012 when early season record heat led to a spate of all-time record summer heat across most of the country, including my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia at 106°F. Due to global warming, we are due for another such year. Both 2012 and 2025 have La Nina patterns in the equatorial Pacific, but the one in 2012 was much colder.
Going into April above average conditions will continue for the nation’s southern half:
That ridge will only get stronger going into April:
As stated, I’ve now added record reports from Tuesday 3/25/2025 in the space below (12 AM EDT update):
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
EXTRAORDINARY HEAT IN JAPAN-HISTORIC
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) March 25, 2025
Dozens of March records pulverized with temperatures up to 29C and will keep rising all week !
Japan climatic history rewritten.
Records include Hiroshima,Fukuoka,Hikone,Maizuru,Toyooka,Okayama,Otake,Takamatsu,Hagi,Yamaguchi,Shimonoseki…pic.twitter.com/6jKGC74xp4
Here is More Climate News from Tuesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)