WASHINGTON (AP) — March’s persistent unseasonable heat was so intense that the continental United States registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to federal weather data. And the next year or so looks to turn the dial up on global warmth even more, as some forecasts predict a brewing El Niño will reach superstrength.
Not only was it the hottest March on record for the U.S., but the amount it was above normal beat any other month in history for the Lower 48 states. March’s average temperature of 50.85 degrees Fahrenheit (10.47 degrees Celsius) was 9.35 F (5.19 C) above the 20th century normal for March. That easily passed the old record of 8.9 F (4.9 C) set in March 2012 as the most abnormally hot month on record — regardless of the month of the year — according to records released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average maximum temperature for March was especially high at 11.4 F (6.3 C) above the 20th century average and was almost a degree warmer than the average daytime high for April, NOAA said.
Six of the nation’s top 10 most abnormally hot months have been in the last 10 years. This February, which was 6.57 F (3.65 C) above 20th century normal, was the tenth highest above normal.
“What we experienced in March across the United States was unprecedented,” said Shel Winkley, a meteorologist with Climate Central, a nonprofit science research group.
“One reason that’s so concerning is just the sheer volume of records, all-time records that were set and broken during that time period,” Winkley said. “But also this is coming on the heels of what was the worst snow year. And the hottest winter of record.”
April 2025 to March 2026 was the warmest 12-month period on record in the continental United States, according to NOAA.
On March 20 and 21, about one-third of the nation felt unseasonable heat that would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, Climate Central calculated.
More than 19,800 daily temperature records were broken for heat across the country, according to meteorologist Guy Walton, who analyzes NOAA data. More than 2,000 places set monthly records for heat — harder to break than daily records — Walton calculated. That’s more March heat records set just last month than in entire decades in the past.
All those broken records “tells us that climate change is kicking our butts,” said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections.
“January through March period was the driest on record for the contiguous U.S. So not only was it hot, it was record dry as well,” Masters said. “And that’s a bad combination for water availability, for agriculture, for river levels, for navigation.”
The European climate and weather service Copernicus and NOAA are both forecasting a “super” strong El Niño to form in a few months and intensify into the winter. Meteorologists expect that to increase already warm temperatures across the globe, likely pushing past the hottest year mark set by 2024.
An El Niño is a natural temporary and cyclical warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters weather across the planet. An El Niño is formed when a specific part of the ocean is 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 F) warmer than normal. It is considered moderate at 1 degree Celsius and strong at 1.5 degrees Celsius. Both NOAA and the Europeans are forecasting this one to be well above 2 degrees Celsius into an area that is informally called super sized and perhaps rivaling records set in 2015 and 2016.
An El Niño releases heat stored in the upper ocean into the air, which causes global temperatures to rise, but with a few months lag time, said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini.
“A strong El Niño could plausibly push global temperatures to new record levels in late 2026 and into 2027,” Gensini said.
Super-sized El Niños often trigger a “climate regime shift,” which pushes normal conditions into a different pattern for years or decades, according to a study last December in the journal Nature Communications. The study said after the 2015-2016 El Niño, the Gulf of Mexico jumped to a new sustained level of warmth that may have contributed to stronger hurricanes along the Gulf Coast in the years after.
Growing research seems to indicate that a warming world from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas could be making El Niños stronger, but climate scientists said that's not quite a consensus yet.
“Global warming is supercharging El Niños and the atmospheric warming they drive,” said University of Michigan environment dean and climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck. "We saw this in 2016 and more recently in 2023. We’re likely to see another jump in global temperatures if a strong El Niño develops later this year as being predicted.”
El Niños tend to tamp down hurricane activity in the Atlantic, but ramp it up in the Pacific and could help ease the southwestern drought, Masters said.
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FILE - Juan Olmedo, left, and his wife Alejandra Delgado use an umbrella to shield from the sun while on a walk at Shoreline Park in Mountain View, Calif., March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
FILE - A jogger runs past as a man sunbathes on a hot day at Crissy Field in San Francisco, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
FILE - A baseball fan tries to shield from the sun during the fourth inning of a spring training baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Athletics, March 17, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Iran, the United States and Israel agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday, an 11th-hour deal that headed off U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash a bombing campaign that would destroy Iranian civilization. Hours after the announcement, Iran and Gulf Arab countries reported new attacks Wednesday, though it was not clear if the strikes would scuttle the deal.
All sides have presented vastly different versions of the terms. Iran said the deal would allow it to formalize its new practice of charging ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to remove buried enriched uranium, though Iran did not confirm that.
Pakistan and others said fighting would pause in Lebanon, which Israel has invaded to fight Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Wednesday that the deal doesn’t cover fighting against Hezbollah. Israeli strikes hit several dense commercial and residential areas in central Beirut Wednesday afternoon without warning, killing dozens and wounding hundreds of people.
Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
The ceasefire may formalize a system of charging fees in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran instituted — and give it a new source of revenue. Iranian attacks and threats deterred many commercial ships from passing through the waterway, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime.
Here is the latest:
Iran accused the U.S. of violating three clauses of its framework for a deal.
Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement with the U.S. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon.
“The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” he said in a post on X. “The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
Spanish Prime Minster Pedro Sánchez condemned Israel’s strikes Wednesday on Lebanon, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“His contempt for life and international law is intolerable,” Sánchez wrote on X.
The Spanish leader, who has been Europe’s loudest critic of the U.S. and Israel’s military actions in the region, called on the European Union to suspend its association agreement with Israel.
The ceasefire requires a “free” reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which includes no tolls imposed by Iran, said Leavitt, describing Trump’s thinking.
A regional official had said on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations that the ceasefire plans included allowing both Iran and Oman to charge new fees to ships transiting through the strait.
Leavitt referenced Trump’s Truth Social post from Tuesday in which he said the agreement was conditional on the “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING” of the strait. She added that “that’s very plain language and it should be taken at face value.”
At a press conference in Beijing early Wednesday, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Iran’s ambassador to China, requested that its two closest allies and the world body help guarantee Tehran’s long-term security as part of the recent deal to end hostilities between U.S and Iran.
The Islamic Republic has made similar requests in the past but they have not come to fruition.
When asked if China would be willing to guarantee such security, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning demurred Wednesday, telling reporters: “We hope that all parties will resolve their disputes through dialogue and negotiation.”
The vice president’s office gave the update Wednesday as Vance was wrapping up a trip in Budapest.
His office did not offer any details about his planned trip to Islamabad to lead the U.S. negotiating team that included Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The president earlier this month said that he was considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO as he grumbled about the lack of support from members of the alliance in his war of choice against Iran.
The criticism from Trump follows years of complaining that the alliance’s member countries aren’t paying enough for their own defense. Trump is set to host Secretary-General Mark Rutte for talks at the White House later this afternoon.
“It’s something the president has discussed, and I think it’s something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary General Rutte,” said Leavitt, when asked if Trump is still considering leaving the 32-member alliance.
The United States demanded Wednesday that Iran immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the Islamic Republic closed the waterway in response to Israeli attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Iran’s move cast doubt over whether an already precarious ceasefire to end more than a month of war would hold.
The United States and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries. Israel also intensified its attacks in Lebanon, hitting several commercial and residential areas in Beirut without warning. At least 112 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in one of the deadliest days in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The fresh violence threatened to scuttle what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
Asked about Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended it as a “very strong threat that led to results.”
“I think it was a very, very strong threat from the president of the United States that led the Iranian regime to cave to their knees and ask for a ceasefire and agree to reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” Leavitt said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
She said any suggestion that Iran had the moral high ground was “insulting.”
Before a ceasefire was announced, Trump had threatened destruction in Iran if it did not reopen the strait, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Leavitt was asked about NATO allies offering to contribute to keeping the strait open, but said the alliance hasn’t done enough to support U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran.
“They were tested and they failed,” Levitt said, reading from a past Trump quote on NATO.
She added: “NATO turned their backs on the American people over the course of the last six weeks.”
Those comments came as Trump was meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House later Wednesday.
Israel’s main airport will resume full operations as of midnight on Wednesday, after the Iran war stranded tens of thousands of people, including both Israelis abroad and tourists inside Israel.
Israel’s airspace has been open but severely limited during the war, limiting flights to once an hour and just 50 people per flight. Israel joins several other countries in the region in reopening its airspace as the ceasefire with Iran appeared to hold.
“His very tough rhetoric and his tough negotiating style is what has led to the result that you are all witnessing today,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, adding that Iran said they wanted a ceasefire because “they no longer could tolerate being bombed.”
Trump’s threats against Iran escalated over the past weeks, culminating in his Tuesday warning that a “whole civilization” could “die” in the lead up to an 8 p.m. deadline, which was later suspended after an agreement was reached.
“The world should take his word very seriously,” Leavitt said.
The White House confirmed that U.S. Vice President JD Vance will lead the U.S. negotiating team in talks with Iran aimed at finding a permanent end to war.
Vance will lead the delegation, which is also expected to include special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, for the talks that are expected to begin Friday in Islamabad, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Vice President Vance has played a very significant and a key role in this since the very beginning,” Leavitt told reporters during a White House press briefing. “Of course, he’s the president’s right hand man. He is the vice president of the United States. He’s been involved in all of these discussions.”
Bahrain said it is reopening its airspace, the state news agency reported Wednesday evening, citing the country’s civil aviation authority.
Bahrain International Airport has begun gradually resuming flights, the agency said.
“We are ready to return to fighting at any time, our finger is on the trigger,” Netanyahu said in his first address to the country since the start of the ceasefire.
“Iran is weaker than ever, and Israel is stronger than it has ever been,” adding that the “deep friendship with the US has changed the face of the Middle East.”
He said the two wars with Iran in the past year have kept Iran from developing a nuclear weapon program and destroyed both existing missiles as well as Iran’s ability to produce missiles.
Netanyahu said he insisted any ceasefire with Iran not include Hezbollah, and cited Israel’s massive strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday for being the biggest attacks against the militant group since the beeper operation in 2024, when Israel engineered exploding pagers that injured hundreds of Hezbollah leaders.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the Iranians originally put forward a 10-point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded,” and that it was “literally thrown in the garbage by Trump.”
But, she said, Iranian authorities on Tuesday presented a new plan that will become a workable basis for negotiations to bring the Iran war to an end.
Leavitt said the new version of the Iranian plan can now “align with our own, 15-point proposal” for peace.
Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, casting doubt over whether an already precarious ceasefire to end more than a month of war will hold.
The United States and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries. Israel also intensified its attacks in Lebanon, hitting several commercial and residential areas in Beirut without warning. At least 112 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in one of the deadliest days in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The fresh violence threatened to scuttle what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
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Abbas Araghchi said in message to the United States that Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon must end as part of ceasefire agreement
Araghchi called insists it is part of the ceasefire agreement with the United States, contrary to what Israel has said.
“The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
Israel’s military announced an easing of the guidelines for civilians, including a resumption of school in most of the country starting Thursday.
It will be the first time in more than a month that schools resume in most of Israel. Large gatherings are still limited in northern Israel and areas under threat from Hezbollah.
The United Nations urges all sides to abide by the two-week ceasefire announced by the United States and Iran and halt military action in Lebanon, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Wednesday.
“Now is the time to pursue talks to resolve outstanding differences and work towards a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict,” he said. “There is no military solution to the conflict.”
Haq said U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel continue to be impacted by the fighting.
He noted an exchange of rocket and artillery fire near Al Tiri on Tuesday that injured six peacekeepers, damaged U.N. vehicles and left five soldiers with “acoustic trauma” to their hearing.
Netanyahu said Israel has achieved “tremendous results.”
“Iran is weaker than ever. Israel is stronger than ever,” Netanyahu said said. He said Israel struck Iran’s missile program and nuclear targets and set back Iran by many years.
The address comes at a time of public criticism over the inconclusive results of the war.
“Many shipowners will remain extremely cautious, fearing a sudden resumption of hostilities,” Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said in a Wednesday note.
He stressed that future escalation cannot be ruled out, “given the significant differences in the parties’ positions.” It could take months for the Strait of Hormuz to resume operations at full capacity, he said, which will continue to keep oil prices high.
Karin Ström, vice president of logistics and supply chain work at Proxima, reiterated that the “fragile political landscape has the potential to change within a matter of hours” and that many vessels may not choose to return immediately, as they seek “greater reassurances about the safety of their cargo and crews.”
Iranians who have been hoping for the Islamic Republic’s overthrow are expressing mixed feelings about the ceasefire, say several Tehran area residents contacted by The Associated Press, who spoke anonymously for their security.
Security forces shot thousands of anti-government protesters in January, prompting Trump’s initial promise to “help” Iranians.
A social media influencer in her forties said she felt “rage, despair” following the ceasefire. “This means that the blood of all those who were killed for freedom will be trampled on,” she said.
Iran’s spiraling economic problems have stoked growing calls for political change. “Everyone is still dissatisfied and prices are rising rapidly, and everyone knows this is because of the Islamic Republic,” said a resident of Karaj, just outside the capital.
—- Amir Hussein-Radjy
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Wednesday he received a “warm and most cordial” phone call from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who praised Pakistan’s efforts aimed at ending the conflict in the region.
According to a statement from Sharif’s office, the two sides agreed to continue to work in pursuit of lasting peace in the region.
Sharif did not provide further details.
Turkey is among the regional countries that have played a role in securing a ceasefire between the United States and Iran and other parties.
The latest count for Wednesday includes widespread strikes across central Beirut that came without warning, also wounding at least 837, one of the deadliest days in this latest war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. It is not the final count.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon during the past month, and over 1 million others have been displaced.
Hezbollah in a statement condemned Israel’s widespread attacks across the country, including neighborhoods in central Beirut without warning, and said it reserved its “natural and legal right to resist occupation and respond to its attacks.”
The militant group did not claim any attacks on Israel Wednesday after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire went into effect.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, reported on the potential ceasefire pullout by Tehran, citing what it described as an informed source.
The source said Iran is reviewing the possibility of exiting the ceasefire framework, noting that a halt to fighting on all fronts — including against Lebanon’s “Islamic resistance” — had been accepted by the United States as part of a two-week truce proposal. The source added that, alongside this review, Iran’s armed forces are identifying targets in response to what were described as Israeli attacks on Lebanon earlier Wednesday.
Since this morning, Israel has carried out what the source described as “clear violations of the ceasefire” with attacks on Lebanon.
The source also said that if the United States is unable to restrain its “rabid dog” in the region, Iran would “exceptionally help it do so — by force,” Tasnim reported.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on X that Lebanon’s leadership had failed to disarm Hezbollah or prevent attacks on Israel, accusing them of criticizing Israeli strikes instead of taking action.
The ministry said Lebanese authorities had not enforced commitments to demilitarize southern Lebanon and warned Israel would act to remove the threat if they do not.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun earlier called Israel’s attacks in central Beirut that killed dozens “barbaric.”
The country’s interior ministry said in a post on the social platform X that these strikes targeted oil facilities, three power and water desalination plants, resulting in “significant” material damage to generators, distilleries and fuel tanks.
Several fires also broke out at some locations, according to the ministry, which made no mention of whether there were casualties, but said that measures were taken to ensure the safety of workers and secure sites.
Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned Israeli assaults on Lebanon, accusing Israel of “persistently seeking to sabotage” the ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran.
Aboul Gheit said in a statement posted on the social platform X that the “barbaric” Israeli military’s attacks on Lebanon violate international law, adding that Israel “continues to play an obstructive role to any understandings that may contribute to restoring stability” in the region.
He also called for the international community to pressure Israel to immediately halt its attacks on Lebanon.
The president told The New York Post in a brief interview that in-person talks about the Iran ceasefire would happen “very soon,” but he did not appear to offer or confirm details about when and where.
Pakistan is expected to host talks.
“We’ll have Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, JD —maybe JD, I don’t know. There’s a question of safety, security,” Trump said.
Vance’s office has not commented on whether he would participate in talks.
Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, called the simultaneous attacks on Beirut and other areas “barbaric,” accusing Israel of committing a new massacre in the country.
In a message Wednesday, Aoun said Israel holds full responsibility, saying the continued pursuit of aggressive policies “will only lead to further tension and instability at a time when everyone is most in need of de-escalation.”
Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes during rush hour Wednesday that hit multiple residential areas in Beirut and other parts of the country.
Entire buildings were destroyed in neighborhoods in Beirut, while in other parts of the city dust and debris covered entire residential areas. Hours after the strikes, rescue workers continued combing through debris looking for survivors while hospitals were overwhelmed with the wounded, appealing for blood donations.
Pro-government demonstrators chant slogans as they hold Iranian flags and a poster of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in a gathering after announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel, at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, Square, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Mourners carry the flag-draped bodies of three members of the Gershovich family, killed when an Iranian missile struck their building, during their funeral in Haifa, Israel, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Men carry the coffins with the bodies of Pierre Mouawad, an official with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, and his wife during their funeral in Yahshush, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Iranian pro-government demonstrators burn the U.S. and Israeli flags during a gathering after announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel, at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, Square, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
