The Reference Frame: UAH AMSU: 2011 was 4th coldest in this century

2011 occupies the 9th warmest rank since 1979

Despite the similarities, one may find differences between the two satellite temperature datasets. While RSS AMSU will almost certainly declare 2011 to be the second coldest year of the 21st century so far, after 2008, the year that just ended looks relatively warmer according to our fellow skeptics at UAH AMSU.

It's the 4th coldest year since 2001 after 2008, 2004, and 2001.

Roy Spencer informed us about the UAH AMSU December 2011 global temperature anomaly: +0.13 °C (almost no month-on-month change). That's enough for us to list the averages for the years 1979-2011 (ignoring the bonus month, December 1978):

The table looks like this:

{1998, 0.428},
{2010, 0.414},
{2005, 0.253},
{2002, 0.223},
{2009, 0.188},
{2003, 0.187},
{2006, 0.176},
{2007, 0.17},
{2011, 0.153}, ◄◄◄
{2001, 0.112},
{2004, 0.108},
{1991, 0.027},
{1995, 0.021},
{1987, 0.019},
{1988, 0.017},
{1980, -0.003},
{1990, -0.017},
{1981, -0.039},
{2008, -0.04},
{1997, -0.045},
{1999, -0.048},
{1983, -0.056},
{2000, -0.056},
{1996, -0.067},
{1994, -0.102},
{1979, -0.165},
{1989, -0.201},
{1986, -0.238},
{1993, -0.241},
{1982, -0.243},
{1992, -0.282},
{1985, -0.306},
{1984, -0.348}

Recall that RSS AMSU probably saw 2011 as the 12th warmest year since 1979, closer to the average than the 9th spot according to UAH AMSU. I also plan to publish the analogous tables for GISS and HadCRUT3 later.

The trend calculated from the 1979-2011 interval is approximately +1.37 °C/century but it shouldn't be attributed too much predictive power.