Why was March 2008 so warm?

Question

After the global warming 'skeptic' 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/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt

I assumed that temperatures were returning to normal becase La Nina was dissipating. However, it appears that this isn'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.wolter/MEI/rank.html

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/people/klaus.wolter/MEI/table.html

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

Answer 1

Where dumbass, hawaii, I thought we weren't supposed to use one month or single location weather to prove a point. It's still snowing here in the middle of April. How pathetic, just give up already!!!!!

Answer 2

Hmm, let me guess spring time.

Answer 3

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't you just post this question yesterday?

Answer 4

Frito Bandito - What you are looking at is US temperature. The data Dana provided was GLOBAL temperature. It may have been cooler than normal in the US, but globally, the average temperature was much higher.

The global analysis for March from NOAA will not be available until April 15th.

Answer 5

Not to call you a chowderhead or anything, because I reserve that term for myself, but I tend not to look at tables of numbers when I want to see things like this.  Animated GIFs are cool:

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

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'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't see Bob'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.

Answer 6

Focusing on any one month will simply reinforce the idea that short term weather has any meaning with regard to global warming.

I know you're frustrated that the "skeptics" have used that argument, and want them to see how ridiculous it is.

But, in my opinion, it's counterproductive to where you want to go.  Once again, you must realize the audience for your words is NOT THE "SKEPTICS".

We're not here to "win", we're here to spread good science.  These questions don't help.

EDIT - So post the question in "Weather" where it belongs.  I repeat, it does no good at all to post questions about short term weather in "Global Warming".  They don't belong here, REGARDLESS OF WHO'S POSTING.

Answer 7

the weather is all over the place, climate is changing

BTW, in which science is your masters degree?

sorry, i don't check my e-mails often i only come onto yahoo for the banter in answers

Answer 8

If global warming is real, why does it get colder at night?

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

i think we still havnt got ocean mixing quite sussed. it takes what, 1000 times the energy to heat a volume of water as air, and we have a LOT of water. you only have to get a season of unusual currents for a load of heat to 'vanish',only for it to pop up again when that warmed current resurfaces.

Answer 11

I wondered about this.  NOAA is saying that this was the 59th coldest March, or 41st warmest in the last 100 years, with the average temperatures 0.4 degrees BELOW the 20th century average.

Why do different government departments get different results from the same data?

New - If NOAA says it was 0.4 degrees BELOW average (US), and NASA says it was 0.8 degrees ABOVE average(World), where was it so warm?  The US is not a small area.

It would have had to be close to 1.1 degrees above average somewhere, but no one reported temps this hot all month!

Answer 12

Because of global warming!! I don't understand the sciences of it too much,(hey I'm only 11) but I do understand what causes it, and there are FACTS to prove it!!!

The people who said you can't judge it by just a month are right. You need to look at 10 years or more of average temperatures, and notice trends. Skeptics claim that global temperatures have been changing dramatically since the world was created, but other than after the Ice Age, there has never been such a constant rise of global temperatures in 25 years. this may not exactly be right, watch An Inconvenient Truth if you want the FACTS.

Answer 13

worldemperor - there's snow predicted for Georgia this weekend with killing frosts expected.  h**l, it's mid April.  It would be nice to see some warming!