By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, Weatherbell.com

Given the warm winter in the lower 48, it may surprise you that 2011/12 was the 11th coldest globally just behind 2008 among the 34 winters in the satellite era.

1 1985 -0.299
2 1989 -0.217
3 1984 -0.207
4 1993 -0.194
5 1979 -0.173
6 1986 -0.141
7 1992 -0.107
8 1990 -0.072
9 1982 -0.052
10 2008 -0.033
11 2012 -0.022
12 1997 -0.008

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Monthly time series since 1979.

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For the US, the RSS monthlies looked like this, surprisingly unremarkable.

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The winter numbers are another story

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Winter 2009/10 was coldest, 2010/11 the third coldest, 2011/12 the 5th warmest.