Lubos Motl, RSS AMSU, Jan-Jul: 2011 second coldest in this century

ARTIST'S IMAGE of ADEOS II

According to RSS AMSU, the first 7 months were the 2nd coldest January-July period in this century so far (second among 11 candidate years).

The top 15 ranking of the years 1979-2011 according to the average temperature during the first seven months is as follows:

1. 1998: 0.652
2. 2010: 0.545
3. 2002: 0.373
4. 2005: 0.356
5. 2007: 0.310
6. 2003: 0.295
7. 2004: 0.230
8. 2006: 0.206
9. 2001: 0.195
10. 2009: 0.168
11. 1991: 0.163
12. 2011: 0.138
13. 1995: 0.134
14. 1988: 0.121
15. 1983: 0.118

You can see that the first seven months of 2011 were colder than the same period of 1991 which was 20 years earlier; and of course, 1998 remains the leader of the league: its first 7 months were more than 0.5 °C warmer than the same months of 2011. At the 12th position, 2011 is out of top ten. Only Jan-Jul 2008 with -0.024 °C managed to be colder than the same period of 2011 among the years of the 21st century. So 2011 is helping to make the preliminary 21st century temperature trend even more negative than before; this is no bulšit, angry Al.

Some warming may have been taking place in recent months - because of the delayed effect of the disappearing La Nina a few months ago.

More at The Reference Frame.