{"id":10475,"date":"2012-02-08T21:26:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T02:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/?p=10475"},"modified":"2025-01-24T17:46:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T22:46:29","slug":"2011-updates-to-model-data-comparisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/archives\/2012\/02\/2011-updates-to-model-data-comparisons\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Updates to model-data comparisons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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And so it goes – another year, another annual data point. As has become a habit (2009<\/a>, 2010<\/a>), here is a brief overview and update of some of the most relevant model\/data comparisons. We include the standard comparisons of surface temperatures, sea ice and ocean heat content to the AR4 and 1988 Hansen et al simulations.
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First, a graph showing the annual mean anomalies from the IPCC AR4 models<\/a> plotted against the surface temperature records from the HadCRUT3v<\/a>, NCDC<\/a> and GISTEMP<\/a> products (it really doesn’t matter which). Everything has been baselined to 1980-1999 (as in the 2007 IPCC report) and the envelope in grey encloses 95% of the model runs.<\/p>\n

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The La Ni\u00f1a event that emerged in 2011 definitely cooled the year a global sense relative to 2010, although there were extensive regional warm extremes. Differences between the observational records are mostly related to interpolations in the Arctic (but we will check back once the new HadCRUT4 data are released). Checking up on our predictions from last year, I forecast that 2011 would be cooler than 2010 (because of the emerging La Ni\u00f1a), but would still rank in the top 10. This was true looking at GISTEMP (2011 was #9), but not quite in HadCRUT3v (#12) or NCDC (#11). However, this was the warmest year that started off (DJF)<\/a> with a La Ni\u00f1a (previous La Ni\u00f1a years by this index were 2008, 2001, 2000 and 1999 using a 5 month minimum for a specific event) in the GISTEMP record, and the second warmest (after 2001) in the HadCRUT3v and NCDC indices. Given current indications of only mild La Ni\u00f1a conditions, 2012 will likely be a warmer year than 2011, so again another top 10 year, but not a record breaker – that will have to wait until the next El Ni\u00f1o.<\/p>\n

People sometimes claim that “no models” can match the short term trends seen in the data. This is not true. For instance, the range of trends in the models for 1998-2011 are [-0.07,0.49] \u00baC\/dec, with MRI-CGCM (run5) the laggard in the pack, running colder than observations. <\/p>\n

In interpreting this information, please note the following (repeated from previous years):<\/p>\n