The global average temperature for the last 12 months is also the highest on record, at 1.58C above the pre-industrial average
Temperatures in March this year were 1.68°C warmer than the estimate for pre-industrial times.
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows the month was hotter globally than any previous record for the month.
But scientists said it was the 10th month in a row to be the hottest on record for the time of year as global climate records continue to sizzle.
The global average temperature for the last 12 months is also the highest on record, at 1.58°C above the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900.
This pushes the world, at least temporarily, above the 1.5°C threshold to which countries have agreed to limit global warming to avoid its most dangerous impacts.
Sea surface temperatures outside the polar regions were at record highs last month, averaging 21.07°C, rising just above the 21.06°C recorded for February.
The figures from C3S also show how temperatures have risen significantly in recent years, with the global average temperatures over the past 12 months up 0.7°C on the 1991-2020 average, and this March 0.73°C warmer than average for that period.
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European temperatures were 2.12°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average in March, making it the second warmest on record for the continent and only 0.02°C cooler than March 2014.
Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over eastern North America, Greenland, eastern Russia, Central America, parts of South America, many parts of Africa, southern Australia, and parts of Antarctica, the analysis shows.
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S, said: ‘March 2024 continues the sequence of climate records toppling for both air temperature and ocean surface temperatures, with the 10th consecutive record-breaking month.
‘The global average temperature is the highest on record, with the past 12 months being 1.58°C above pre-industrial levels.
‘Stopping further warming requires rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,’ she warned.
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