110 Degrees In March? Where It Happened

The most prolific March heat wave in at least 14 years smashed monthly records in over 180 cities from the Southwest to the Plains and East, may have set new statewide March records in 17 states, and obliterated a national March heat record that stood for over 70 years.

This event's intensity and longevity will be long remembered by meteorologists as the most significant early-spring heat wave since the March 2012 event smashed hundreds of records in the nation's mid-section.

It started in earnest with the first March heat records in the West on March 16 and 17, and continued in waves for 11 days through March 26, eventually spreading its March records as far east as Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

New US March Heat Record

Before this heat wave, the hottest March temperature on record anywhere in the U.S. had been 108 degrees in Rio Grande City, Texas, on March 30, 1954, and on March 14, 1902.

But at least one location in the U.S. tied or exceeded that March national record five separate days from March 18-21 and March 25.

On March 20, four reporting stations in the lower deserts of southeast California and southwest Arizona hit 112 degrees, shown in the map below. You can't make it up that one of these stations was near the town of Winterhaven.

These highs were only one degree shy of tying the April U.S. record high set at Death Valley, California, according to weather historian Christopher Burt. And that happened in late April — April 22, 2012 and April 24, 1946.

March Statewide Records

It also appears that the statewide records for the hottest March temperatures were either tied or broken in 17 states, according to world weather records expert, Maximiliano Herrera.

We touched on the California and Arizona records above (112 degrees) as national records, but the other state records that appear to have been tied or set include:

• Texas: 108 degrees
• Nevada: 106 degrees
• Oklahoma: 106 degrees
• Kansas: 104 degrees
• New Mexico: 103 degrees
• Colorado and Nebraska: 99 degrees
• Utah: 98 degrees
• Missouri and South Dakota: 97 degrees
• Iowa: 96 degrees
• Illinois: 94 degrees
• Wyoming: 90 degrees
• Minnesota: 88 degrees
• Idaho: 86 degrees

Kansas, New Mexico and Utah appear to have tied or set their new March record three different days during the heat wave.

For bigger state or national records like these, an ad hoc committee of meteorologists and climatologists is usually convened to examine the data and the reporting station before it becomes a new, official record.

City March Records

Over 180 locations with data since the 1960s or earlier have tied or set new March records from California to Pennsylvania to South Carolina during this heat wave.

Phoenix only had one March day of triple digit heat on record prior to this heat wave. They hit the 100s eight days in a row from March 18-25, topping out at 105 degrees on March 20 and 21. Incredibly, that's equal to their April monthly record, which was set almost a month later in the calendar on three dates ranging from April 20-29 in three past years.

Las Vegas tied or set their new March record nine days in a row from March 18-26. They topped out at 98 degrees on March 25, five degrees hotter than their March record prior to this heat wave. That's their average high on June 11.

Flagstaff did one better, as they tied or set their March record 10 days in a row from St. Patrick's Day through March 26.

Other major cities that tied or set new March records included San Francisco's first March 90-degree high downtown, Salt Lake City (84 degrees), Boise (83 degrees), Denver (87 degrees) and Albuquerque (91 degrees).

But it wasn't just a western heat wave.

March records were tied or set in Lubbock, Texas (98 degrees), Kansas City (93 degrees), St. Louis (93 degrees), Des Moines, Iowa (91 degrees), Nashville, Tennessee (89 degrees), Louisville, Kentucky (89 degrees), Indianapolis, Indiana (88 degrees), Columbus, Ohio (86 degrees), Pittsburgh (84 degrees), and Charleston, South Carolina (90 degrees).

St. Louis also tied its April record on March 26, the afternoon of Opening Day of Major League Baseball as the Cardinals hosted the Tampa Bay Rays. The earliest in any year St. Louis had previously reached 93 degrees was April 10, 1930.

Perhaps the most extraordinary record burst of heat east of the Rockies happened in Nebraska on March 21.

Both Lincoln and Omaha not only demolished their March record, after reaching 97 degrees in Lincoln and 96 in Omaha, but also tied their April records.

Speaking of Nebraska, Sidney, in the state's western panhandle, not only topped their March record high (92 degrees), but also tied their April record set almost one month later in the calendar (April 24, 2012).

Several of these cities reached the 70s, 80s, 90s, or 100s for the first time in March in their recorded history, including Butte, Montana (first 70s), Cheyenne, Wyoming (first 80s), Fayetteville, Arkansas (first 90s) and Borger, Texas (first 100s).

On the weekend of March 21 and 22, parts of the Plains were as much as 45 degrees warmer than average.

It wasn't just about record highs.

Laramie, Wyoming, had its warmest daily low temperature on March 25 (43 degrees) of any previous day on record from November through April, according to the National Weather Service. Laramie is at an elevation of 7,270 feet, almost 2,000 feet higher than Denver.

Why So Hot So Soon?

The reason for this heat wave in particular has to do with the ridge of high pressure, also known as a heat dome, that was parked over the West.

This heat dome is record-breaking for March, comparable in strength to ones we see in June. You can see the general position of the high pressure on the satellite loop below in the darker shading.

Climate Change Role

Earth's warming world appears to have its thumb on the scale of this exceptional heat wave.

According to an analysis by Climate Central, the extremity of this two-week heat wave was made at least five times more likely by climate change. Last week, higher-end values of their Climate Shift Index used to estimated climate change's role on daily temperatures covered the largest area of the country in their 57-year dataset.

Another analysis by World Weather Attribution concluded the magnitude of this March record warmth was "virtually impossible without climate change".

Climate Central also found that streaks of extreme heat such as this March heat wave are becoming more common. Their analysis of 247 U.S. cities found 80% of those cities now average two more extreme heat streaks per year than they did in the 1970s.

(MORE: Earth's Climate Is 'Out Of Balance', WMO Finds)

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.