Historic March Heat Wave Headed For Southwest, California With Numerous Records Threatened; East Rides Temperature Roller Coaster

Jonathan Erdman Sat, March 14, 2026 at 2:35 PM UTC

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Forget about "False Spring," parts of the West will be feeling more like mid-summer as we head deeper into March. Meanwhile, much of the East will be getting a cold reality check.

A pattern change will cause the mercury to soar to record levels across the Southwest while the East will be riding quite the temperature roller coaster through next week.

Record Warmth Returns To West

Above average temperatures are going to dominate the West for the foreseeable future, threatening numerous records.

(MORE: March Outlook)

This record heat will cover much of southern and central California and stretch eastward into Texas. Some records could also be set as far north as Colorado. Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Albuquerque are all cities that could see daily records at least one day in the next week.

Daily temperatures will gradually climb each day. By early next week, places as far north as San Jose and Redding could see highs near 90 degrees.

For the Desert Southwest, this is looking to be a historic March heat wave.

(MORE: Heat Safety And Preparation)

Phoenix could see multiple days over 100 degrees. They typically don’t reach temperatures this high until early May, and their earliest recorded 100 degrees was set in 1988 on March 26. This heat wave could beat this record by more than a week.

Some of these state all-time March records could be in jeopardy:

California’s state record max for March is 107 degrees at Mecca on March 21, 2004

Arizona’s state record max for March is 104 at Yuma on March 21, 2004

Nevada's state record max for March is 100 at Laughlin on March 17, 2007

And this heat isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

The pattern supporting this unseasonable warmth could stay in place across much of the West into next weekend.

Temperature Roller Coaster For The East

The East will see temperatures at or above average through the weekend before they get knocked down by a harsh reality check early next week.

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As this pattern flip brings warmth to the Southwest, it will pull colder air southward from Canada beginning Monday in the Rockies and Plains, then pushing to the rest of the South and East on Tuesday. That could be followed by another cold front Friday into next Saturday.

Temperatures will be up and down for much of the week ahead.

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Record Warmth So Far

Before the calendar even turned to March, Phoenix tied or set new daily record highs four days in a rowall in the 90s.

One Deep South Texas reporting station recorded what may be the nation's hottest winter temperature.

(MORE: Record Warmest Winter In Parts Of The West)

And the records continued to fall as we kicked off the first month of meteorological spring.

During the first week of March, we saw many daily record highs tied or set across the Southern Plains and Southeast.

Then, the week of March 9, that warmth spread through much of the eastern half of the country, including the earliest 80 degree day in New York City.

Last week the Southwest already saw some daily records fall. Santa Ana, California, hit a staggering 97 degrees on Thursday, breaking the old daily record set in 2007. Records all were broken or tied across Southwestern California, including Chula Vista (91), Ramona (90), Alpine (92) and El Cajon (94). All their previous records were from 2007.

Daily high temperature records that fell on Friday include Phoenix, Arizona (93), Downtown Los Angeles (92) San Diego (89) and LAX (88).

More records will fall in the coming days.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.

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Source: “AOL General News”