[Vision2020] GISS: May 2011 9th Warmest in 131 Year Record: Arctic Warmth Continues

[Ted Moffett]

Goddard Institute for Space Studies was a bit slow this month, it
seems, getting the May 2011 global average temperature data posted on
their website:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt

The cooling effects of La Nina, just in June officially declared over,
on global temperature continued in May, with May 2011 global average
surface temperature 9th warmest in the 131 year instrumental record of
the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

This is cooling relative to the 2010 annual temperature, which was the
top warmest year in the 131 year GISS record:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20110112/

May 2011 global average temperature was well above the 1951-1980
baseline GISS utilizes.

Note that the greatest anomalous warmth on Earth continues in the
Arctic (color coded global May 2011 temperature map here:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/do_nmap.py?year_last=2011&month_last=05&sat=4&sst=1&type=anoms&mean_gen=05&year1=2011&year2=2011&base1=1951&base2=1980&radius=1200&pol=reg
),
expressing "polar amplification" as predicted in this often referenced
paper from 1980: Manabe, Syukuro, and Ronald J
Stouffer, 1980: Sensitivity of a global climate model to an increase
of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Journal of Geophysical
Research, 85(C10), 5529-5554. available in full (26 pages pdf) free
here: http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/bibliography/related_files/sm8001.pdf
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett