(CNN) New climate change records have come along to remind us that Earth's thermostat is steadily pushing upward.

More exactly, there are two global high temperature records and a smattering of climate change low points.

March 2015 was the warmest March since record-keeping began in 1880, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . And the first quarter of 2015 was the warmest first quarter on record in those same 136 years.

That gives 2015 a stab at trumping the hottest year on record -- which was 2014

The report predicts sea levels will rise at least a foot by the end of the century and perhaps as much as 4 feet, depending on how much of the Greenland and Antarctic ice shelf melts. Such an outcome could be catastrophic for millions of people living along the ocean, submerging tropical islands and encroaching on coastal areas. In this image, dated October 29, 2012, streets are flooded under the Manhattan Bridge in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, New York, as Superstorm Sandy slammed the Northeast coast.

Severe weather: Flood, fire and drought – The report predicts sea levels will rise at least a foot by the end of the century and perhaps as much as 4 feet, depending on how much of the Greenland and Antarctic ice shelf melts. Such an outcome could be catastrophic for millions of people living along the ocean, submerging tropical islands and encroaching on coastal areas. In this image, dated October 29, 2012, streets are flooded under the Manhattan Bridge in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, New York, as Superstorm Sandy slammed the Northeast coast.

Recent polling indicates most Americans believe human activities cause climate change but also shows the issue is less important to the public than the economy and other topics. A Gallup poll in March found that 34% of respondents think climate change, called global warming in the poll, posed a "serious threat" to their way of life, compared with 64% who responded "no." At the same time, more than 60% of respondents believed global warming was happening or would happen in their lifetime. Here, a pedestrian crosses Douglas Avenue on a bike during a snowstorm on February 4, in Wichita, Kansas.

Severe weather: Flood, fire and drought – Recent polling indicates most Americans believe human activities cause climate change but also shows the issue is less important to the public than the economy and other topics. A Gallup poll in March found that 34% of respondents think climate change, called global warming in the poll, posed a "serious threat" to their way of life, compared with 64% who responded "no." At the same time, more than 60% of respondents believed global warming was happening or would happen in their lifetime. Here, a pedestrian crosses Douglas Avenue on a bike during a snowstorm on February 4, in Wichita, Kansas.

Republican critics immediately pounced on new report as a political tool for Obama to try to impose a regulatory agenda that would hurt the economy. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky mocked what he described as the hypocritical stance of "liberal elites" who demand strong action on climate change while failing to reduce their own carbon footprint. He called the debate "cynical" because Obama knew that "much of the pain of imposing such regulations would be borne by our own middle class." Here in March, an avocado grove near Valley Center, California, is left to wither because of the rising cost of water.

Severe weather: Flood, fire and drought – Republican critics immediately pounced on new report as a political tool for Obama to try to impose a regulatory agenda that would hurt the economy. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky mocked what he described as the hypocritical stance of "liberal elites" who demand strong action on climate change while failing to reduce their own carbon footprint. He called the debate "cynical" because Obama knew that "much of the pain of imposing such regulations would be borne by our own middle class." Here in March, an avocado grove near Valley Center, California, is left to wither because of the rising cost of water.

The Great Plains could experience heavier droughts and heat waves with increasing frequency, while more wildfires in the West could threaten agriculture and residential communities, the report notes. In this image, dry and cracked earth is visible on what used to be the bottom of Folsom Lake on March 20, in El Dorado Hills, California.

Severe weather: Flood, fire and drought – The Great Plains could experience heavier droughts and heat waves with increasing frequency, while more wildfires in the West could threaten agriculture and residential communities, the report notes. In this image, dry and cracked earth is visible on what used to be the bottom of Folsom Lake on March 20, in El Dorado Hills, California.

The report breaks the country down by region and identifies specific threats should climate change continue. Major concerns cited by scientists involved in creating the report include rising sea levels along America's coasts, drought in the Southwest and prolonged fire seasons. In this image from January 16, a wildfire burns in the hills just north of the San Gabriel Valley community of Glendora, California.

Severe weather: Flood, fire and drought – The report breaks the country down by region and identifies specific threats should climate change continue. Major concerns cited by scientists involved in creating the report include rising sea levels along America's coasts, drought in the Southwest and prolonged fire seasons. In this image from January 16, a wildfire burns in the hills just north of the San Gabriel Valley community of Glendora, California.

More than 300 experts helped produce the report over several years, updating a previous assessment published in 2009. A Democratic operative who now counsels the President called the report "actionable science" for policymakers and the public to use in forging a way forward. In this image, cars are seen in the aftermath of an embankment collapse in Baltimore as a massive storm system pounded the mid-Atlantic on April 30.

Severe weather: Flood, fire and drought – More than 300 experts helped produce the report over several years, updating a previous assessment published in 2009. A Democratic operative who now counsels the President called the report "actionable science" for policymakers and the public to use in forging a way forward. In this image, cars are seen in the aftermath of an embankment collapse in Baltimore as a massive storm system pounded the mid-Atlantic on April 30.

Climate change is here and will only worsen. Get used to more flooding, wildfires and drought, depending on where you live. That's the take-home message of a White House report released in May that is part of President Barack Obama's second-term effort to prepare the nation for rising sea levels and increasingly erratic weather. Here, a flooded parking lot at the Laurel Park horse racing track is seen Thursday, May 1, in Laurel, Maryland. Click through to see more examples of severe weather:

The uninterrupted continuation of the warming trend is no surprise. The 10 warmest years on record have occurred in the past 17 years.

And though the rise in the last 10 years has been gentle by comparison, since 1910, the clear trend has been up, according to NASA's Global Land-Ocean Temperature Index.

In the latter two thirds of that time, warming and the effects on climate have been epochal, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia."

That new March record

March 2015 edged past the last record high March, which was in 2010, rising by 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit (0.05 C). Average global land and water temperatures for the first quarter of this year beat the last record first quarter, 2002, by the same margin.

March 2015 is the hottest March globally on record

Yet another broken record this March was more obvious to the eye. The expanse of Arctic sea ice shrunk to an absolute low for any March on record.

"The average Arctic sea ice extent for March was 430,000 square miles (7.2 percent) below the 1981--2010 average. This was the smallest March extent since records began in 1979," NOAA said.

Small gains, large net loss

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On the other end of the globe -- in the Antarctic -- sea ice has been on the gain, and this year, it hit a record March high.

But globally, the overall result is a big net loss. "The upward trend in the Antarctic ... is only about a third of the magnitude of the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean," according to NASA

Natural ice continues disappearing elsewhere.

Californians in particular have noticed the lack of snow on their mountain peaks, a major source of their dwindling water supply. The warming trend has reduced snow coverage throughout the Northern hemisphere, especially reducing the amount of coverage in spring.

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This March, Northern Hemisphere snow coverage was the seventh lowest on record, NOAA said.

NASA: Much more to come

But all this is nothing compared to what lies ahead, NASA says. What it expects for the not-so-distant future is unprecedented in contemporary weather records, unprecedented in at least the past 1,000 years.

If carbon emissions continue on course, further temperature rises should bring decades-long megadroughts to the western half of the United States in this century.

Wait. That would be yet another record.

This March saw the highest level of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere since record keeping began. Not the highest level for any March but the highest level ever at 400 parts per million, NOAA says . Considering the rising carbon dioxide trend, NASA has run 17 climate models on supercomputers with data spanning the past 1,000 years.

The agency concludes from the calculations that there is an 80% chance of megadroughts lasting 20 to 40 years.

The current severe drought that has decimated California's water supply has lasted about three years. The drought that turned much of the U.S. West into the Dust Bowl in the 1930s lasted 10 years.