MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AS OF MARCH 2025
All March long, abnormally warm weather prevailed in the ETR, with the average air temperature 4-8° higher than normal in each of the three decades and numerous temperature maxima recorded all the way from the Russian North to the North Caucasus and Crimea, up to +25° in some places. The south of Russia was a single exception where the extreme frosts would come on occasional days. For instance, a new absolute minimum of air temperature for March equal to -23.4° was set in Mineralnye Vody.
As a result, this March became the second warmest in the 135-year history of regular meteorological observations in the ETR; the weather was even warmer in March 2020 only. In Central Russia, March was the warmest in meteorological chronicle, and in the south, it reproduced the achievement of the same 2020.
The picture in the Urals and to the east of them was quite different: there, warmth and cold were alternating. In the first decade, the weather was basically cold, and the average temperature anomalies in Siberia and in the Far East reached -3…-6°. In the second decade, warmth occupied the Urals and Siberia (with anomalies of +4…8°), and new temperature maxima were recorded in the southern Urals and in the south of Krasnoyarsk Territory. At the same time, cold captured the Far East, especially its northern territories (anomalies of up to -4…-6°). And in the last decade, warmth remained were it was and extended to the north of the Far East, but abnormal colds came to Yakutia and the south of the Far East.
The war between cold and warmth eventually concluded with a victory of warmth, albeit that not very convincing one. The anomaly of monthly-averaged temperature over the whole country was less than one and a half degrees, putting last March to a mere fourteenth position among its warmest siblings in 135 years of observations. In terms of the monthly averages, March in the Urals and Western Siberia was 2-4° warmer than normal, while in Yakutia and the Far East, it was 1-2° colder.
The monthly-averaged temperature in most of East and South-East Asia was close to normal. In the north-east of China and in Mongolia, the weather was notably warmer than usual (anomalies of up to +2° and above), while in the central regions and the south of China as well as in neighbouring Indochina countries, slightly colder than normal. In Thailand, the air temperature exceeded +40° at the end of the month.
Above-normal air temperatures were also observed in India and Pakistan, leading to +2° or higher anomalies in certain regions.
The monthly-averaged temperatures were approximately normal almost all over the Near and Middle East, except for the Levant countries, Turkey and Transcaucasia where they were two or more degrees higher than that.
In Central Asia, this March was noticeably warmer than normal: the thermometer readings rose above 30-35° in the coast of the Caspian Sea, and the monthly averages were 2-3° higher than normal in Turkmenistan and northern Uzbekistan and four or more degrees higher in the north-west of Kazakhstan.
In North Africa, the weather was abnormally warm everywhere. The monthly-averaged temperature in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso was 2° above normal. Eventually, March in North Africa became the third warmest in the history of meteorological observations.
As for Europe, March 2025 was the warmest in this history, with the previous record-breaking value set in 2014 and reproduced in 2024 exceeded by 0.1°, and the monthly-averaged air temperature in Eastern, Northern, Central and North-Western Europe 2-4 or more degrees above normal. New temperature maxima were recorded in Scandinavian countries, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Only in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France was this March slightly colder than usual.
The situation in North America was interesting: in Canada, the final monthly figures in the Arctic territories and in the south along the US border were very high with the monthly-averaged temperature anomalies +2-4° or more, whereas in the central regions of the country, cold weather with the anomalies of down to -2° prevailed. The weather in the north, east, south-east and centre of the US was significantly warmer than usual (anomalies of +2-4° or greater), while in the west, the weather was normal. This March in the USA was the fifth warmest in the history of meteorological observations. The air temperatures in Mexico and Central America were above-normal.
In the Arctic, temperature was almost 3° higher than normal, putting this March among the top warmest in history.
March 2025 in the Northern Hemisphere was the third warmest since 1891; March 2016 and March 2024 were even warmer.
In Moscow, the monthly temperature average was +4.2° implying an anomaly of +4.9°. This was the second warmest March in the meteorological annals of the capital; March 2007 was the only one even warmer.
Sea Surface Temperature
In the Pacific Ocean, negative SST anomalies were still observed along the equator, but in the east off the coast of South America, positive anomalies reaching +1…2° have appeared as a forerunner of an impending transition to El Niño, the positive phase of the Southern Oscillation. Yet in general, the surface of the Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere remained unprecedented warm since October 2023, i.e. for eighteen months in succession. High positive SST anomalies were located at subtropical latitudes, while the SST in the north – in the Sea of Okhotsk and in the Bering Sea – was sub-normal.
The average SST anomaly of the Atlantic Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere has notably reduced to reach less than +1° after it was in excess of +1° during the whole 2024. Most of the water body was occupied by positive SST anomalies, and water colder than normal was observed along the North American coast. Water in the marginal seas of Europe was still very warm.
Precipitation
In terms of the monthly totals, precipitation in the Central and North-West Federal Districts was normal or increased, up to 1.5 times the normal figure in some places of the Russian North. In the north, heavy snowfalls took place setting new maxima of precipitation totals, while in the central regions the weather was rainy amounting to 15-18 mm or atmospheric moisture per day in Orel, Bryansk and Kursk Regions. In the Kaliningrad Region, the western enclave of Russia, precipitation was subnormal, and in the rest of the ETR, either normal or less than that. The latter primarily concerns the Stavropol, Krasnodar and Perm Territories, as well as the Republics of Adygea, Crimea, Chuvashia, Mary El and Tatarstan. In the last days of the month, rain descended upon the Krasnodar Territory.
Precipitation was roughly normal in the Urals and normal or increased in Siberia: up to 1.5 times the normal value in the Tomsk and Omsk Regions as well as on Taimyr. Nature dealt a snow blow to Kamchatka and Sakhalin where the intensity of precipitation was more than 30 mm in 12 hours. The monthly precipitation totals in Kolyma and in south of the Khabarovsk Territory were 1.5-2.0 times the normal values or more in some places.
Snow storms were observed in Mongolia and northern China, and rains, in the central regions of China. In places where they fell, the monthly precipitation totals exceeded the normal amount by 1.5-2.0 times or more, while in the rest of the territory, the weather was dry. Very dry weather in the Republic of Korea resulted in numerous fires that killed the people. Precipitation in Japan was normal.
In some regions of Malaysia and Indonesia, heavy downpours caused floods which most harmed Jakarta: half-metre waves rolled along the city streets, and the water level in lowland areas reached one and a half metres.
The monthly precipitation totals in the central states of India were 2-3 or more times greater than normal, although the normal value in this time of year amounts to a few millimetres there. In the rest of South Asia, the weather was dry, as was the case in most of the Near and Middle East. But the precipitation totals in some places of the Arabian Peninsula were in excess of 1.5 times the normal value.
Turkmenistan, the northern regions of Uzbekistan and the western ones of Kazakhstan received above-normal precipitation. In the rest of Central Asia, precipitation was either normal, or subnormal.
A lot of rain fell in West Africa where the normal figures were exceeded by 1.5-2.0 or more times. Precipitation along the Mediterranean coast was close to normal.
Heavy rains visited Spain several times in March; in some places, they destroyed the infrastructure and killed the people. Lashing rains pelted in the Balkans and in Greece, raising the levels of rivers and causing floods, and thereby leading to numerous destructions. According to the Serbian mass media, no such natural disaster has been observed in the Republic for more than a hundred years. In the Balkans, on the Iberian Peninsula, in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries and in Belarus, the monthly precipitation totals reached the normal value, or exceeded it in some places. In the rest of Europe, the weather was mostly dry.
The weather in most of the North American continent was also dry. Normal or above-normal precipitation was observed in the eastern provinces of Canada and the northern states of the US only.
In Moscow, the monthly precipitation total amounted to 36 mm. This is normal.