Met Office: 2011 to be cooler than 1998

World May Post Hottest Year on Record in 2010, UN Agency Says - Bloomberg

Next year is likely to be cooler because of a “very strong” La Nina effect, the Met Office said today in an e- mailed statement. That refers to a periodic pattern of cooler surface waters in the Pacific Ocean. The latest began in the second half of 2010. The British agency said 2011 is likely to be about 0.44 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1961 through 1990 average, placing it among the 10 warmest years on record.

That compares with the 0.52-degree temperature “anomaly” registered in 1998, the hottest year in the series compiled by the Met Office since 1850.
...
While a single year of data “doesn’t give a scientific basis to arrive at any kind of inference,” there’s a stronger trend to be drawn from a longer series of readings, Rajendra Pachauri, the UN’s chief climate scientist, said in an interview in Cancun. Before this year, 11 of the previous 12 years featured in the 12 hottest years in recorded history, he said.

“It’s important for negotiators to follow the science and use the negotiations on climate change to respond to the science,” Pachauri said.

2007: A New Leaderboard at the U.S. Open « Climate Audit

Four of the top 10 are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900.