ReportApril 3, 2025

Monthly Attribution Overview March 2025

An analysis of how climate change boosted United States temperatures in March 2025

Using Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index (CSI) tool to measure the impact of climate change on daily temperatures across the United States, as well as NOAA’s Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) to find daily temperature information, we have compiled a high-level overview of how climate change has affected temperature trends in March in cities across the United States. (Full report downloadable as PDF here; dataset downloadable as Excel workbook here.)

1. High Level Findings

Report: Monthly Attribution Overview March 2025 Figure 1

Figure 1. Threaded ACIS temperature anomalies for March 2025 relative to the 1991-2020 standard normal period. Analysis based on ACIS data.

Report: Monthly Attribution Overview March 2025 Figure 2

Figure 2. Days with a CSI of 2 or higher for March 2025 for ACIS threaded stations. Analysis based on ERA5 data (March 1-29) and GFS data (March 30-31).

2. Local Temperature Anomaly Analysis

City

State

Temperature Anomaly (°F)

Average Temperature (°F)

Warming Since 1970 (°F)

Wheeling

WV

9.00

49.50

11.5

Cedar Rapids

IA

8.04

44.57

3.8

Pittsburgh

PA

7.69

47.40

3.2

Waterloo

IA

7.41

44.11

5.2

St Louis

MO

7.30

53.95

5.6

Anchorage

AK

7.24

33.03

1.3

Syracuse

NY

7.06

40.85

2.2

Utica

NY

7.06

40.85

2.2

Quincy

IL

7.02

49.06

4.1

Helena

MT

6.88

42.94

3.4

Table 1. Top 10 ACIS stations with the highest March 2025 temperature anomaly.

City

State

Warming Since 1970 (°F)

Temperature Anomaly (°F)

Average Temperature (°F)

Wheeling

WV

11.5

9.00

49.50

Las Vegas

NV

6.0

-0.21

60.58

Chattanooga

TN

5.9

2.95

56.10

Albany

GA

5.6

0.47

60.82

El Paso

TX

5.6

1.57

60.27

St Louis

MO

5.6

7.30

53.95

LaCrosse

WI

5.5

5.55

41.34

Duluth

MN

5.5

3.37

30.37

Tucson

AZ

5.5

1.08

62.98

Rockford

IL

5.4

5.58

42.87

Table 2. Top 10 ACIS stations with the fastest warming March since 1970.

3. Local Climate Shift Index Analysis

City

State

Days at CSI = 2 or higher

Days at CSI = 5

Average Temperature (°F)

Temperature Anomaly (°F)

Honolulu

HI

31

27

77.77

3.13

San Juan

PR

30

20

80.56

2.01

Anchorage

AK

24

7

33.03

7.24

Colorado Springs

CO

15

4

44.98

3.88

Grand Junction

CO

15

5

48.60

3.60

Victoria

TX

14

3

67.55

3.09

Denver

CO

13

1

45.77

4.17

Juneau

AK

13

1

36.52

3.62

Salt Lake City

UT

13

5

45.62

-0.24

Waco

TX

12

0

64.05

5.25

Albuquerque

NM

11

4

50.94

1.43

Table 3. Top 10 ACIS stations with the highest number of days at or above a CSI of 3 during March 2025.

METHODS

Calculating the Climate Shift Index

All Climate Shift Index (CSI) levels reported in this brief are based on daily average temperatures and  ERA5 data from March 1 to March 29 2025, and GFS data from March 30 to March 31, 2025. See the frequently asked questions for details on computing the Climate Shift Index, including a summary of the multi-model approach described in Gilford et al. (2022).

City Analysis

We analyzed 191 Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) stations associated with U.S. cities. For each city, we found the CSI time series from the nearest 0.25° grid cell. We calculated the number of days at CSI levels 2, 3, 4, and 5. We used ACIS data to find the average monthly temperatures, temperature anomalies, and precipitation information, and to derive average monthly warming trends for each city.