15,000 Temperature Records Broken in March 2012, Yet Some Folks Deny Climate Warming Still

Yes, it was a hot month. I don't remember ever wearing sandals in Montreal in March, but I did. And despite the fact that temperatures dropped after the incredible week that spring arrived, they've been high enough so that forsythia is in bloom now and trees are just at the point of leafing out.

The US government climate agency reports that "Warmer-than-average conditions occurred across nearly all of Canada, the contiguous United States, Mexico, Europe, Argentina, Peru, and parts of northern and central Russia, India, China, and eastern Brazil. Cooler-than-average regions included Alaska, Australia, eastern and western Russia, and parts of New Zealand. "

It adds: "record and near-record breaking temperatures dominated the eastern two-thirds of the nation and contributed to the warmest March on record for the contiguous United States, a record that dates back to 1895."

Here's an animation showing the locations of each of the 7,755 daytime and 7,517 nighttime records (or tied records) in sequence over the 31 days in March.