Afreakish March heat wavehas already pushed temperatures to summertime levels throughout much of the western and central United States, but a new report comes with a dire warning: This is just the beginning.
TheWorld Meteorological Organization(WMO) announced on March 23 that the planet's climate is now "more out of balance than at any time in observed history."
That long-term warming trend is set to meet a short-term global heat-up, which could bring unprecedented heat into 2027.
The short-term force concerning meteorologists involves a potentiallystrong El Niño, forecast to begin this fall, which could lead to additional global heat records.
El Niño, a natural warming of Pacific Ocean water that affects weather around the world, often leads to some of the hottest years on record, such as the record-breaking worldwide average temperature in 2024.
If El Niño develops as expected, it would likely boost the planet to its warmest year on record, climate scientistZeke Hausfathersaid on X earlier in March.
The news comes as the WMOreports dire climate changedata: "The state of the global climate is in a state of emergency," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, in a statement. "Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red."
US heat wave among the most extreme ever
A recent analysis byWorld Weather Attributionsaid a March heat wave in the United States would have been "virtually impossible without human‑caused climate change," with fossil‑fuel warming adding several degrees to observed temperatures, according to the Associated Press.
The heat raises concerns about the drought and lack of snowpack across the West, along with the increased chances for wildfires this spring, summer and fall across much of the country due in part to the heat.
In Flagstaff, Arizona, for example, "this event was the most anomalously extreme heat event ever observed at any time of year," saidDaniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.
In terms of the overall heat, he said: "This probably was one of the most singularly extreme heat events (in an anomalous sense) that we've observed in North America in modern history."
"This does not mean that it was hotter this month than it would be during a heat wave in July," Swain said. "But what it means is the departure from what temperatures would usually be like at this time of year was greater during this event than at any previously observed event by a pretty wide margin," he added.
Advertisement
Overall, at least 14 states may have set a new record for all-time high March temperature.
Climate change worries grow: 'Energy is accumulating'
The WMO, which is the United Nations' weather agency, said that greenhouse gas concentrations from the burning of fossil fuels continue to drive warming of the atmosphere and oceans and the melting of ice.
These "rapid and large-scale changes have occurred within a few decades but will have harmful repercussions for hundreds — and potentially thousands — of years," the weather agency said.
According to the WMO, the Earth is gaining significantly more heat energy than it releases, driven by emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.
This record "energy imbalance" heated the ocean to new heights last year and continued to melt our planet's ice caps, theBBCsaid.
The WMO's scientific officer John Kennedy explained that under a balanced system, incoming energy from the sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy, but this is not the case at the present time.
"There's less outgoing energy due to the increased concentrations of greenhouse gases," he said in astatement."More energy coming in than going out means that energy is accumulating in the Earth's system."
Data show that levels of three main greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — continued to increase in 2025.
In 2024 — the last year for which we have consolidated global observations — the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide reached its highest level in the last 2 million years, and methane and nitrous oxide in at least last 800,000 years.
Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY
Doyle Rice is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, with a focus on weather and climate.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:UN issues dire climate change report as El Niño danger grows
