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Satellite Measured Temperature Data for April

May 5, 2011; 9:54 AM ET

Satellite measured temperature data for April 2011 has been released.

Remote Sensing Systems combined global land and sea temperature measurement for the lower troposphere indicates that April 2011 was the 16th warmest April on record going back to 1979, which obviously puts it pretty close to normal.

The actual RSS global temperature anomaly for April 2011 was .110 celsius above normal. By the way, March 2011 was slightly below normal at -.027 celsius.

For the continental USA, April 2011 was similar to the global number and slightly above normal at .119 celsius.

The RSS image below shows the color coded temperature anomalies for April 2011. The reds and yellows are above normal temperatures , while the blues and purples indicate colder than normal conditions for last month.

I circled the central United States above to show the tight contrast between the unusual cold farther to the north into Canada and the abnormal warmth across the Deep South of the U.S. When you have such a sharp gradient like that you can expect stronger than normal storms to track up along that tight gradient. The end result was the tremendous amount of severe storms and tornadoes across the Plains, Midwest and Southeast during the month.

Props to the ECMWF long range model........

The ECMWF model earlier in Feb and March clued us in on this potential recipe for widespread severe weather across the central and southern U.S. during mid-spring. Looks like it was right on target and I am glad we got the word out well in advance.

Link to the RSS data.

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Acknowledgement

MSU/AMSU data are produced by Remote Sensing Systems and sponsored by the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. Data are available at www.remss.com.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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