This has been one of our best weather threads with the magnitude of this record warm March exceeding all other months in recent history by a wide margin IN THE UNITED STATES.

                Historic SW US March heatwave            

                            48 responses |               

                Started by WxFollower - March 18, 2026, 12:24 a.m.            

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/118783/

Contiguous United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contiguous_United_States

The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America

If just the contiguous United States were a country, it would be fifth on the list of countries and dependencies by area, behind Russia, Canada, China, and Brazil.

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The contiguous United States (the 48 lower states and D.C.) covers an area of roughly 3.12 million square miles (8.08 million

). This area constitutes approximately 1.5% to 1.6% of the Earth's total surface area and roughly 5.4% to 6% of the world's total land area (approx. 57.5 million sq miles).

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Let me repeat that: This area constitutes approximately 1.5% to 1.6% of the Earth's total surface area

Assessing the U.S. Temperature and Precipitation Analysis in March 2026

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate-202603

• Record-dry year to date: The January–March period was the driest on record for the CONUS—less than 70% of average—breaking the previous record set in 1910.
• Notable drought footprint: Dry conditions expanded drought to nearly 60 percent of the CONUS—the largest extent of drought since November 2022.
• Cold in Alaska: Alaska had its fourth-coldest March on record (since 1925) and the coldest since 2007.

In contrast, Alaska’s statewide average temperature was 0.6°F, 10.2°F below the 1925–2000 average. While the North Slope remained near average, much of the state experienced much-below-average temperatures, with parts of the southeast interior, southern coast and panhandle recording record-cold conditions. Minimum temperatures were especially notable, ranking as the third-coldest March on record and the coldest since 1972.

It really boils down to this, once again(Cliff Mass can be counted on as an elite source for using objective, authentic science)

https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-golden-rule-of-climate-extremes.html

The GoldenRule

 Considering the substantial confusion in the media about this critical issue, let me provide the GOLDENRULE OF CLIMATE EXTREMES. Here it is:

The more extreme a climate or weather record is, the greater the contribution of natural variability.

Or to put it a different way, the larger or more unusual an extreme, the higher proportion of the extreme is due to natural variability.   

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This is especially true in the case of March 2026 because the extreme, RECORD anomaly was the exact OPPOSITE of the climate change/global warming anomaly which causes the higher latitudes to warm the most and the lower latitudes to warm the least. 

Without climate change, with X amount of warming superimposed on the entire system, depending on location,  the higher latitudes would have been MUCH colder by an amount that was of greater magnitude than the US would have been less warm by.

Regardless, the same extreme anomaly 100 years ago would not have been as warm in the Southwest US. 

Again, this is extremely noteworthy when discussing only weather/climate. But the increase in CO2 has other impacts that should always be included in the overall discussion.

That includes the fact that CO2 is the building block for all life on this planet and is just less than half of the optimal level and indisputably, the current climate is a scientific climate OPTIMUM for life. Not a crisis.

We can call it a crisis for specific realms(if you are along a coastline in a place with rising seas-the global average is 1 inch+/decade)  but for the planet and human race, it's a scientific OPTIMUM!

I believe that the intense heat dome in the Southwest was related to the extreme positive temperature anomaly in the East/Central Pacific.

                2-17-26 El Nino, here we come-FAST!            

                            22 responses |              

                Started by metmike - Feb. 17, 2026, 11:54 

         https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/117969/

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                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 2-17-26 El Nino, here we come-FAST!            

                            By metmike - April 14, 2026, 9:23 a.m.           

++++++++

The extreme cold in Alaska was caused by constant cross polar flow from Siberia to Alaska.

Here's a look at Alaska:

Streamlines straight from the north. CROSS POLAR flow from Siberia blowing in Siberian origin air masses with some wiggles/kinks in the jet stream along the way.

Just look at that contrast for the entire month of March!!!!

Arctic Oscillation and Polar Vortex Blog

       Dr. Judah Cohen

      Director, Seasonal Forecasting
  Atmospheric and Environmental Research
  JANUS Research Group

     March 30, 2026

https://published.aer.com/aoblog/aoblog.html

Globally, March tied (within .01 degree) 2016,2024. & 2025 for hottest ever, so by the Mike Rule this is 100% climate
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/202603

Thanks, patrick.

Not sure what you are trying to say but global warming is a very slow increase in temperatures because of the very slow increase in CO2 (and the indisputable physics of green house gas warming) from humans burning fossil fuels. 

This is not "Mike's rule". It's authentic science, physics, climate and empirical data which I show here using the scientific method.

The fact that its taking us so long to break out to new global temperature highs is because of the recent cooling La Nina and a few other items not related to long term global warming from the CO2 climbing slowly.

However, I would be shocked if temperatures were not a bit warmer than this in 2036, then a bit warmer than that in 2046 and 2056 after that, with decreasing confidence 2066 and 2076(depending on whether we have a La Nina or not in those years.

However, the massively greening planet is greatly increasing its demand for more and more CO2. Gobbling it up at an increasing rate.

Within the next 50 years(maybe even before 2076), as fossil fuels run out, the demand for additional CO2 needed to sustain this increased greening will, at first reach a steady state, then fall short.

This will cause the atmospheric CO2 to start falling and lead to global cooling. 

When that happens, the following things will happen, almost with certainty.

1. The planet will start DE-greening as CO2 levels drop.

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/#71114

2. Crop yields and food production will start dropping, leading to more global starvation on a planet with 9 or 10 billion people that only grew to that size because of the current climate optimum for life and especially for crops.

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/#71265

3. Droughts will increase because global cooling, with less moisture in the air is what causes the most droughts. In the 1800's, the United States had 3 separate Dust Bowls(similar to the 1930's Dust Bowl). The biggest reason was MUCH COOLER global temperatures. Global warming and the current climate optimum has been protecting the US Cornbelt from severe, long lasting droughts. Tightly packed rows of corn are recycling moisture thru their massive transpiration(with much higher dew points, lower lifting condensation levels, more PM cumulus clouds, more rain and LESS extreme daytime heat but more humid).  Indisputable! Photosynthesis also converts solar, short wave radiation from kinetic energy/heat to stored chemical energy in all plants. A greening planet reduces global warming and increases carbon sequestration via photosynthesis. Also the radiation absorption bands for H2O and CO2 overlap and are getting saturated in the humid places in the world. Added CO2 is having less and less impact on global warming with time with the impact being logarithmic. 

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/#109795

4. Higher CO2 make plants more water efficient/drought tolerant because they don't need to open their stomata as wide to get CO2, which also causes them to transpire moisture from their roots. That will make it slightly worse from the natural droughts. 

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/115068/#115076

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/#70805

5. Humans in that age will look back at this fake climate crisis in the same way that we look at humans that thought the earth was flat and the sun revolved around the earth. Humans in those ages were just scientifically ignorant. I this age, the biggest reason for the FAKE climate crisis is that climate science was hijacked for an agenda and absurdly rewritten to take out the Medieval Warm Period and ignore the Holocene climate Optimum (9,000 to 6,000 years ago) that was actually warmer than this at higher latitudes with LESS Arctic Sea Ice.

Much of that is proven at this threat below but I'll try to pick out some relevant links/evidence to correspond to the points above:

   DeathbyGREENING!            

                            52 responses |           

                Started bymetmike - May 11, 2021, 2:31 p.m.       

     https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/

I'm not a scientist, but do have enough background in chemistry, limnology, & physics to follow the big changes happening in the oceans. 70% of the surface, 91% of the warming, after all. Warming water holds less oxygen, and more CO2 lowers pH.
Combine these effects with fertilizer runoff, heavy metals concentrating up the food chain, plastics, overfishing, dead zones, bottom trawling & all the other stuff we've dumped in the water, and the results get really big & sometimes weird:
Coral bleaching
The Great Garbage Patch
The breakdown of the connection between the Sargassum Belt & the Sargasso Sea
Atlantic cod commercial collapse
And my semi-local interest, Cape Cod Bay & the Gulf of Maine
Which I follow with great interest but no serious hope of amelioration.
Any idea of a way to invest in edible jellyfish? They could be the next big thing.
https://earth.org/not-feeling-the-heat-jellyfish-thriving-in-warmer-waters/

I very closely followed the horrible coral bleaching around the FL Keys in the summer of 2023. This almost certainly wouldn’t have happened without GW. Also, there are far more flooding king tides nearby than occurred a few decades ago. That’s only going to get worse with rising sea levels.

 I believe I’ve posted about both of these things repeatedly here.

Thanks very much, Patrick!

Combine these effects with fertilizer runoff, heavy metals concentrating up the food chain, plastics, overfishing, dead zones, bottom trawling & all the other stuff we've dumped in the water, and the results get really big & sometimes weird:

We couldn't agree more on this, despite our disagreement on the big picture impact from climate that includes massive benefits that you never acknowledge. 

There is plenty of REAL pollution on this planet!  

                Re: Overturning the fradulent Endangerment Finding           

                           By metmike - Feb. 13, 2026, 2:41 p.m.            

 The real environmental crisis's            

                            31 responses |          

                Started by metmike - April 10, 2019, 7:11 p.m.            

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/27498/

Also, one side constantly points out when BAD life does better from the climate optimum but wants us to believe that, somehow, all GOOD life suffers.

In a climate optimum MOST life does better, good and bad. Cherry picking exceptions of good life doing worse doesn't refute this. Downplaying or Pretending the planet greening up from increasing CO2 doesn't exist  or somehow is part of the exact same conditions killing the planet is not honest science.

I totally get where you are coming from and why!

In the 80's and 90's I felt very similar. All I had access too was scientific articles about climate change that had been hijacked for an agenda.  Then, the internet came and I was able to access the objective, empirical data myself. It's tough to see outside an already formed opinion for humans, ESPECIALLY scientists but that's the authentic scientific method.

Thanks very much, Larry.

Yes you have mentioned those and its been very appreciated. It's true that global warming, with an ocean +1 Deg C does increase those events.

You are one of the most objective, open minded authentic science understanding people that I know. 

I too have been following them. 

How many posts have you made about them in recovery? And about adaptation?

Florida’s coral reef recovery shows progress after recent dive by Florida Aquarium

https://www.fox13news.com/news/floridas-coral-reef-recovery-shows-progress-after-recent-dive-florida-aquarium

++++++++++++

As you know, I have repeatedly pointed to a slightly warmer ocean increasing the potential intensity of some hurricanes that experience rapid intensification. 

Yes, there are absolutely some negatives, however, the fact still remains:

Cold still kills 10 times more humans than heat.

Cold still kill 200 times more life than heat (by my estimate). 

The Holocene climate OPTIMUM, that got its name before climate science was hijacked got that name from condition warmer than this in the higher latitudes. 

The perfect biological and scientific temperature and CO2 levels of the planet were not 150 years ago and any deviations from that are bad. That's junk science and a political position.

The optimal level of CO2 for most life is 900 parts per million. We are currently around 430 ppm.

I totally understand your points and see those things. In THOSE specific realms one could categorize them as a crisis. The entire picture for all of life on this greening planet says that its a climate optimum. 

If we could go back into a climate/CO2  time machine and turn things back 150 years, everybody would totally get that!

We do have some pretty compelling evidence of that because people actually LIVED 150 years ago and we KNOW what happened with the cooler global temperatures and much lower beneficial CO2.

https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/#109795

Again, I'm not suggesting that gatekeepers of climate messages NOT tell us about bad things. My position is for them to  stop cherry picking, telling us ONLY the bad things(and exaggerating/pretending that's the only impact)  and completely ignoring the more robust good things.

Since they will never live up to that expectation of presenting honest, objective and authentic science, as an atmospheric scientist, I'm using MarketForum as an opportunity to speak out with the HONEST science, that  tells EVERYTHING related to the increase in CO2 from humans burning fossil fuels, which are warming the planet and gifting it with more CO2, the building block for all life.

That last part was not an opinion, it's an authentic fact. 

Larry, I very much appreciate you bringing up things like coral bleaching because I'm well aware that my position to speak out with the other side, ignores that side because 98% of it is everywhere and everybody already gets that out the wazoo. 

However, I appreciate you and Patrick bringing that up here so that MarketForum is NOT an echo chamber. 

And you can see that we agree across the board on almost all things related to the  environmental issues(though at least we passed the Clean air and Clean Water acts that stopped horrific things like dumping raw sewage into our rivers and streams) 

As mentioned many times here, I'm a practicing environmentalist.

What does that mean?

To me, being an environmentalist means numerous things

I conserve water and energy, I turn the ac completely off in the Summer when my wife is not home and (used to turn down) the heat  to as low as50 in the winter when she’s gone.....seriously-I damaged her tropical plants a couple of times-I wear a sweat shirt, my winter jacket, a hat and gloves with finger holes to type on the computer. I often wear a pair of down pants over my jeans. That was when she would be out of town and honestly to save on the heating bill in this 6,000+ square foot house that made no sense to heat for just 1 person.  My son lives with the both of us now, so unfortunately, that's another person that gets weighted into the equation who cares about comfort more than me. 

I  minimize use of plastics and paper/ cardboard. We used to recycle but got out of that routine. My kids would collect aluminum cans, crush them then we would sell them. They made $100 doing this.

I also exercise vigorously and exhale massive amounts of beneficial CO2 to do my part in helping to green up the planet (-:

Unless you are very active or get dirty, there is no need to shower every day. I shower after exercise or working outside and getting dirty. Showering every day Is a waste of water if you just do it out of habit. Green lawns are aesthetically appealing but they waste billions of gallons of water. I admit to using more water on the lawn than I should. but living on the Ohio River means we have an unlimited source.

Most importantly, I reduce my consumption of material things to those that I need. I don't need the newest car or newest I-phone or newest I-pad. My family makes fun of me for having the oldest versions of these things in the family.

ALL my new clothes and many other items that most people think they need come via my birthday, Fathers Day or Christmas.

You see, OVER consumption is something that people in the United States do. Not only OVER consuming natural resources, some that are finite and will run out on this planet but resulting in massive amounts of waste, with the old stuff going into massive landfills around the country.

People are familiar with the term "carbon footprint"  I think a more honest term that applies to SAVING THE PLANET  would be "environmental footprint"

                The Water Crisis            

                            Started by metmike - March 29, 2024, 10:21 a.m.   

         https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/102853/

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your ways to help the environment! I also tend to not feel the need to have the latest and greatest although when I’m forced to buy a new IPhone due to becoming obsolete I typically buy the newest knowing that it will last the longest before it later goes obsolete.

 I have a 20 year old car with very low mileage (80K) and a 14 year old minivan with 70K. I’m content. When I have to buy another vehicle, I don’t expect it to be new…maybe ~2 yrs old.

 I don’t buy clothes often and have lots of very old stuff. Eventually though it does wear out and look bad. So, unfortunately replacements are eventually needed. But I wear clothes repeatedly before washing if they don’t get dirty or sweaty. Cutting down on the washing is both better for the longevity of the clothes and saves on water/ electricity.

 I don’t take baths every day and sometimes don’t for several days if I don’t get sweaty or dirty though I’ll usually reapply anti-persp every morning, which includes water because I use hard salt crystal stick for my antipersp (all natural). Sometimes I might sponge off small areas in lieu of a shower.

Regarding the FL Keys coral bleaching: the great damage was done but…

1. Indeed, this is good news that they’re successfully cross breeding with Honduran coral that can withstand higher water temps. This will help the recovery.

2. 2024 and 25 thank heavens didn’t have nearly as hot water as 23 and this prevented a repeat. 2023’s devastating marine heatwave was due to unique conditions (drought, hardly any clouds, and possibly also lighter than avg winds) which lead to more than the normal amount of direct solar heating along with less than the normal amount of cooling rainfall (admittedly the lack of rainfall may only be a minor warming factor since the volume of nearby rainwater is small compared to the volume of ocean water near the Keys….does anyone know? The water near the reef isn’t too deep) and possibly also winds too light to cool the water via disturbing it.

 So, there were the pretty local conditions that I described above that lead to several degrees F of rise. Add to that the warmer base SSTs due to GW and there was a recipe for disaster. Fortunately the last 2 summers only had the warmer base from GW without the unique localized conditions that combined for the ‘23 disaster.

3. They also took samples of all of the species of coral on the reef and transplanted them in labs on the mainland in the hopes of making sure each species wouldn’t go extinct.

Thanks, Larry!

I don't expect others to behave like me but just want to demonstrate my personal mindset on environmentalism since people equate my position on climate change to be ANTI environmental. 

Just updated today. The rapidly developing El Nino increases prospects for much more rain this growing season but I would especially be concerned if we had a La Nina like in 2012 and 1988 that caused our last MAJOR, widespread droughts in the Cornbelt. We were supposed to get 2 inches of rain this week and got nothing. This is exactly what kept happening in the Springs of 1988 and 2012. 

You're state, GA is one with some of the worst drought!

NEW LINK:
https://www.drought.gov/current-conditions

  National Current Conditions

Drought eliminated some places but increasing in MORE places!

       Thru  April 16, 2026

DROUGHT MONITOR

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Drought gone in the Midwest. Worse in the Plains, South and East. 

Historically, how has El Niño influenced summer temperature and precipitation around the world?

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/historically-how-has-el-nino-influenced-summer-temperature-and

Published August 24, 2023

Since this El Nino is coming on faster than any previous one, we have to assume that the upcoming Summer will be greatly impacted by El Nino.

The images above give us the picture worth 1,000 words.  

Odds are elevated this year for favorable growing conditions.

But each year is different. There is no guarantee that this Summer will match the El Niño or climate change analogs which both have greatly increased odds for good growing season weather in the main crop growing regions.

Larry,

That was an extremely informative discussion on how we are able to help the coral to adapt. Much appreciated!
Most news stories only cover when an event is being caused by stress but don’t cover the recoveries or adaptation endeavors.