Scorching Southwest Heat Shatters March Records

Experts warn this extreme weather is becoming more common due to climate change

Mar. 21, 2026 at 12:49am

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A dangerous heat wave has shattered March temperature records across the U.S. Southwest, with some areas reaching 112°F. Experts say this type of extreme, out-of-season weather is becoming more frequent due to human-caused climate change, putting more people at risk. The area of the U.S. affected by extreme weather has doubled in the past five years, and the country is breaking 77% more hot weather records now than in the 1970s.

Why it matters

This heat wave is the latest example of the dangerous and unprecedented weather extremes driven by climate change. Experts warn that these types of abnormal, deadly events are occurring more often, requiring communities to rethink how they prepare for and respond to extreme weather.

The details

On Friday, two Arizona communities and two Southern California locations all reached 112°F, shattering the previous highest March temperature record in the U.S. This heat wave would have been "virtually impossible" without the influence of human-caused climate change, according to a report by the World Weather Attribution group. Climate scientists estimate the warming from burning fossil fuels added between 4.7°F to 7.2°F to the temperatures being felt.

  • On March 21, 2026, record-breaking heat hit the U.S. Southwest.

The players

Andrew Weaver

A climate scientist at the University of Victoria.

Bernadette Woods Placky

The Chief Meteorologist at Climate Central, a nonprofit group that researches and reports on climate change.

Craig Fugate

The former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency until 2017.

Clair Barnes

An attribution scientist at Imperial College of London who co-authored a report on the heat wave.

Chris Field

A climate scientist at Stanford University.

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What they’re saying

“This is what climate change looks like in real time: extremes pushing beyond the bounds we once thought possible. What used to be unprecedented events are now recurring features of a warming world.”

— Andrew Weaver, Climate Scientist

“It's really hard to even keep up with how extreme our extremes are becoming. It's changing our risk, it's change our relationship with weather, it's putting more people in risky situations and at times we're not used to. So yes, we are pushing extremes to new levels across all different types of weather.”

— Bernadette Woods Placky, Chief Meteorologist

“We were operating outside the historical playbook more and more. Flood maps, surge models, heat records — events kept showing up outside the envelope we built systems around. That's just what we saw.”

— Craig Fugate, Former FEMA Director

“What we can very confidently say is that human-caused warming has increased the temperatures that we're seeing as a result of this heat dome, and it's going to be pushing those temperatures from what would have been very uncomfortable into potentially dangerous.”

— Clair Barnes, Attribution Scientist

What’s next

The World Weather Attribution group plans to publish a full peer-reviewed analysis of the March 2026 Southwest heat wave in the coming weeks.

The takeaway

This extreme heat event is a stark reminder that climate change is already transforming weather patterns and putting more lives at risk. Experts warn that communities must rethink how they prepare for and respond to these new levels of weather extremes.