Why was March 2008 so warm? After the global warming %26#039;skeptic%26#039; hysteria due to one cold month (January 2008, at 14.12°C), global temperatures have returned to normal. March 2008 had an average global temperature of 14.67°C, which was the hottest month since January 2008, which was the hottest single month ever recorded.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabled...

I assumed that temperatures were returning to normal becase La Nina was dissipating. However, it appears that this isn%26#039;t the case. December-January 2008 was the 12th strongest La Nina of any Dec-Jan since 1950, but Feb-March was the 3rd-strongest La Nina of any Feb-Mar since 1950, with an even lower Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI).

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/people/klaus.wol...
http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/people/klaus.wol...

Does anyone have any theories why March 2008 was so warm even though La Nina is still going strong?

Additional Details

4 months ago

This is a scientific question Bob. I honestly want to know the answer. I don%26#039;t care about the %26#039;skeptics%26#039;.

Some effect caused the planet to warm in recent months. Sure it%26#039;s probably a short-term weather effect, but the main such factor is usually ENSO, and this time that wasn%26#039;t the case. So I want to know if anybody knows what caused this change.

4 months ago

Frito - as pointed out by Richard, you%26#039;re looking at US temperature data. I%26#039;m looking at global data.

4 months ago

willow - I told you, physics.

Note that although the SO index (i.e., those tabulated numbers) indicate that la Nina is persisting, the maps of SST indicate it is dissipating, with rapid warming in the western pacific during March, continuing into April. Furthermore, the majority of SST over the equatorial Pacific are not that much lower than average.

Rapid warming ocean, rapid warming atmosphere. Kinda goes hand in hand. The forcing from CO2 hasn%26#039;t stopped. It was illogical to think that the planet had stopped warming, the heat was just going somewhere else besides the atmosphere and land surface.

I don%26#039;t see Bob%26#039;s point about this being inappropriate. People conflate short-term variability with climate here all the time. These data demonstrate the fallacy of calling out a cold couple of months as evidence of anything. The motherlode of eye-candy for ADHD people like me:

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/precip/...

wooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

the weather is all over the place, climate is changing

BTW, in which science is your masters degree?
sorry, i don%26#039;t check my e-mails often i only come onto yahoo for the banter in answers

Why was the medieval warming period so warm? Why do they find farmsteads under receding glaciers? Could it be that it has warmed before? Why did it warm back then? How did the polar bears survive? Didn%26#039;t you just post this question yesterday?

Hmm, let me guess spring time.

worldemperor - there%26#039;s snow predicted for Georgia this weekend with killing frosts expected. Hell, it%26#039;s mid April. It would be nice to see some warming!

what is the point of your drama dana? are you trying to make me accept your point of view? i can tell you with absolute certainty i will never accept the mantra you spew. if i were to say that there are blizzard warnings across the midwest today, youd have some stupid arguement saying what a misguided idiot i am. that being said when are you going to stop driving a car, stop pushing your garbage to the curb, stop flushing the toilet, stop using heat and a/c in your home, stop using paper products and the like? you can admit that you do what every other human does. its okay, we all know thats the case. but, since everything you do in this life contributes to global warming, to come on here and try to scare people you dont even know with the bs that you promote is just plain hypocritical and the reason i will never, ever accept your mantra as anything other than what falls from the backside of a bull. its all okay for you, but not me. i expect nothing less from a lib from berkeley. in short, you have no room to talk on this subject until you stop doing what all humans do.