How did 2011 compare to the last 130+ years?
Feb 22, 2012; 3:27 PM ET
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) put together a nice review of the global climate of 2011 and how it compared to the last 130+ years.
Last year (2011) will go down as the 11th warmest year globally (tied with 1997) since records began back in 1880, according to the NCDC climate report.
The NCDC chart below shows the annual combined global land/ocean rankings of the last 11 years...

As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, 2011 ended up as the warmest "La Nina year" on record. La Nina typically has a cooling influence on the global temperature.
The second NCDC graphic below is very telling in regards to the influence of El Nino (warming influence) and La Nina.

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