Record breaking temperatures recorded in US in March

Temperatures in the United States reached record breaking levels in March, according to statistics released by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Climatic Data Center.

The record-breaking and near record-breaking temperatures were recorded last month and each state of the US had at least one record-breaking temperature in March.  preliminary figures just released show that more than 15,000 warm weather records were broken in the past month.  The figures issued beat the previous record from 1910.

Average temperatures  were 51.1°F, which is 8.6 degrees above the normal average for the time of year. While some might have enjoyed the warmer weather, the report also says that the higher temperatures "also created an environment favorable for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes".  There were 233 preliminary tornado reports in March, according to NOAA; usually there is an average of 80 in March.

Chicago, Washington D.C. and Boston were among the cities experiencing a record-breaking start to the year with the first quarter also recording record temperatures.  Not so lucky was Alaska which had its ninth coolest start to the year with temperatures 5.2 °F below average.