MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AS OF MARCH 2025

Air temperature

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.

MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AS OF FEBRUARY 2025
 
Air temperature
 
The abnormally warm weather which reigned in the ETR in January migrated to the beginning of February. In the first decade, new air temperature maxima were recorded in Central Russia and the Russian North where the decade-averaged temperature anomalies ranged from two to six or more degrees. In the Urals, these anomalies where even higher: up to or greater than +8°. At the same time, the trends in Siberia and the Far East were different: while the weather in the north of Siberia and in the south of the Far East was noticeably warmer than usual (with the decade-averaged anomalies of up to +8-12° and new daily temperature maxima in Evenkiya, Primorye and Sakhalin), the weather in the south of Siberia and in the north of the Far East was mostly colder, and the above anomalies were in the range -4…-7°. In Chukotka, the frosts were as cold as -50…-55°, and new daily temperature minima were recorded.
In the second decade, colds descended upon the ETR, and the average temperature dropped below the normal value everywhere, notably, by 2-3 or more degrees below in the south and west. The warmth in the Urals subsided (resulting in anomalies of +2…4° as compared to +6…8° in the first decade). In the north of the Far East, the abnormal warmth replaced the cold, and the weather became 6-8° warmer than usual. The anomalies reached 2-3 or more degrees in Siberia, new temperature maxima were set for several days in a row in Chukotka, and the record-breaking warmth was observed in Primorye.
In the third decade, the weather in the central and southern regions of the ETR became yet colder with the frosts down to -20…-24° in Donbass and the Rostov Region, and the thermometers in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories showed record low readings. The decade-averaged temperature anomalies reached -3…-10°. The abnormally cold weather returned to Chukotka.