Update: March Heat Records More Than Double to Incredible Ratio of 35 to 1 vs. Cold Records

Image (click to enlarge):
Monthly ratio of daily high temperature to low temperature records set in the U.S. for January 2011 through March 19, 2012, seasonal ratio for summer and fall 2011, winter 2011-2012, and annual ratio for 2012 and 2011;
CapitalClimate chart from NOAA/NCDC data, background image © Kevin Ambrose (www.weatherbook.com). Includes historical daily observations archived in NCDC's Cooperative Summary of the Day data set and preliminary reports from Cooperative Observers and First Order National Weather Service stations. All stations have a Period of Record of at least 30 years.

The onslaught of heat records this month is so furious that it's almost impossible to keep up. The National Climatic Data Center was forced to take its reporting system offline for several days to do emergency maintenance in order to cope, but the reports are still lagging by 2 days. In just the 4 days since the previous update, data through Monday (March 19) show that the number of new daily heat records for March has more than doubled to nearly 4000, while the number of cold records has increased by less than 20, to 113. This gives an astonishing ratio of 34.8 to 1, over 50% above last August's incredible pace. For the year to date, the ratio is approaching 20 to 1, nearly 10 times the pace of the previous decade.