The EU Copernicus Climate Change Service has said last month was the second warmest March on record.
It was also the 20th time in the last 21 months that the average global surface air temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the monthly pre-industrial level.
The average surface air temperature was 14.06C.
This was 0.65 degrees above the 1991-2020 average for March.
It was also 1.60 degrees above the pre-industrial level.
For the European area specifically, the average temperature over land last month was 6.03 degrees.
This was 2.41 degrees above the 1991-2020 March monthly average, making it Europe’s warmest March on record.
The monthly Copernicus bulletin also shows contrasting rainfall extremes in Europe.
Many areas had their driest March on record, while others had their wettest. The records stretch back 47 years.
It was drier than average in the UK and Ireland and in a large west-east band across central Europe extending southward to the Black Sea, Greece and Turkey.
However, most of southern Europe saw wetter-than-average conditions, particularly over the Iberian Peninsula, which was hit by a series of storms and widespread flooding.
It was also wetter than average in Norway, parts of Iceland and north-western Russia.
Arctic sea ice was 6% below average, the lowest monthly extent for March in the 47-year satellite record.
It was the fourth consecutive month in which the Arctic sea-ice extent has set a record low for the time of year.
