While March 2011 saw La Niņa weakening, its cool waters were still widespread.
A waning La Niņa ocean-cooling in the Pacific was the driving force behind March 2011 stacking up as the coolest March worldwide since 1999, according to climate experts.
While La Niña weakened for a third consecutive month, John Christy of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama says that it still managed to have a chilling influence on the global weather system.
March 2011 was also the 15th-coldest March on record, bucking the recent trend of a warmer global climate, according to Christy’s calculations.
Photo: NOAA