Measuring March

In the long run, the debate will argue whether March served as a pause or a turning point on the road of evidence of climate change and the planet's recent warming trend. The 50 cities measured against their historical average by the Forecast Earth Temperature Index produced an average gain in March of less than two-tenths of a degree, far below the average gain of +1.48 degrees seen this past winter.

Wild swings of unseasonable warm and cold weather also fell off in March, as temperatures did a much better job of clinging to their historical averages - 18.8 percent of the month's readings checked in within 2 degrees, plus or minus, of their historical counterparts. During the months of January and February, just 11.6 temperature readings measured within that spread.

Index cities recording monthly averages above their historical measurements outnumbered their colder counterparts 27-23.

Caribou, Maine, dealt with the coldest March compared to its history, with its month's worth of temperatures averaging -5.5 degrees against the norm recorded in the National Climate Data Center Daily Normals (1971-2000). Madison, Wisconsin (-3.8), Detroit (-3.2) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (-3.1) were also among the coldest cities vs. history in March.

Washington, D.C., which measured out to be the warmest Index city (+8.2) compared to its historical average during the 91 days of winter, continued as the Index's warmest city in March, with a +6.1 reading compared to history. Los Angeles (+4.4), Norfolk, VA (+4.3), Dallas (+4.2), and San Antonio (+3.9) rounded out the five warmest cities.

Remember, there were 19 days of duplicated readings between the March and winter measurements.