[Vision2020] La Nina Induces Global Cooling Feb. 2011: Goddard Institute for Space Studies

[Ted Moffett]

Note that in the map at Goddard website separate below this paragraph,
the western US saw temperatures in Feb. 2011 below the 1951-80 average
Goddard utilizes; but the Arctic obviously saw large areas well above
the 1951-80 average.  That Feb. 2011 saw a cooling in global
temperature as measured in this manner (GLOBAL Land-Ocean Temperature
Index in 0.01 degrees Celsius   base period: 1951-1980:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt ), should
be placed in the context that Feb. 2011 global temperatures were still
above the 1951-80 average, at the 14th warmest on record, given the
131 year instrumental record Goddard utilizes.  This is cooling in
reference to the record high global temperatures recorded for
Jan.-Nov. 2010 ( http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2010november/ );
and is to be expected given the cooling impacts of upwelling of cold
ocean water due to a La Nina phase of ENSO (El Nino Southern
Ossillation) in the Pacific ( http://www.wunderground.com/climate/ ):

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/do_nmap.py?year_last=2011&month_last=02&sat=4&sst=1&type=anoms&mean_gen=02&year1=2011&year2=2011&base1=1951&base2=1980&radius=1200&pol=reg
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett