Report: US Sees Hottest March in 132 Years of Records
The Spin
Climate-concerned narrative
March 2026 wasn't just a hot month — it was a climate alarm bell, shattering 132 years of U.S. records with temperatures 9.35°F above the 20th-century average. Human-caused warming made extreme heat five times more likely across nearly a third of the Lower 48 on a single day, and that's not a coincidence. Fossil fuel dependence is delivering nonsurvivable conditions right now, and governments refusing to act are making it worse.
Climate-skeptic narrative
Record March temps look alarming until you factor in that a major El Niño is forming — a natural ocean cycle that redistributes existing heat, just like it did in 1998, 2016 and 2023. Natural variability, high-pressure ridging and ENSO cycles still drive short-term temperature extremes far more than a trace gas at 0.04% of the atmosphere. Calling this a climate emergency ignores the physics of how Earth's heat system actually works.