The time series has been smoothed with a 3-point running mean for this plot. PostScript files of this figure are available both in color and in black and white.
This time series is constructed from an eof-filtered SST data set (Smith et al., 1996, J. Climate, 9, 1403-1420) for 1950-81 and an optimal interpolation SST data set (Reynolds and Smith, 1994, J. Climate, 7, 929-948) for 1982-95. The contributions of individual grid points are weighted by the cosine of the latitude of the grid point.
Click here to obtain the time series (in degrees C) written in MATLAB format. [Read the data in with "load tropical_sstanom.mat", and the data will appear in the variable "tropical_sstanom."]
In the following table, the anomalies are in thousandths of a degree Celcius.
jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec 1950 -245 -288 -195 -272 -295 -280 -268 -312 -261 -285 -311 -347 1951 -304 -277 -378 -212 -246 -49 -32 -25 -35 93 45 22 1952 40 101 60 31 -17 -30 -119 -49 -64 -35 -71 -87 1953 -2 48 71 72 32 -12 7 -29 -30 -79 -51 -24 1954 -54 -53 -110 -211 -248 -269 -329 -204 -312 -248 -306 -374 1955 -290 -329 -273 -390 -404 -363 -335 -272 -309 -460 -416 -389 1956 -315 -320 -315 -364 -338 -369 -406 -261 -303 -227 -267 -200 1957 -131 -83 -65 -2 114 86 113 147 62 22 81 148 1958 178 254 163 159 60 56 20 82 14 10 -45 121 1959 77 107 30 43 108 -37 -91 -72 -10 28 -34 -24 1960 -71 -73 51 -22 -5 -106 -19 -93 -22 -108 -85 28 1961 15 131 37 44 42 52 -51 17 -83 -139 -116 -73 1962 -39 -58 -25 -34 -37 15 70 93 90 38 49 -10 1963 -30 11 19 84 69 47 129 166 146 127 244 211 1964 120 35 -39 -100 -195 -176 -184 -253 -337 -251 -347 -386 1965 -336 -207 -238 -146 -108 -137 -136 -63 -20 4 -1 40 1966 11 11 17 24 -76 1 31 -18 14 -57 -22 -34 1967 -82 -79 -80 -96 -54 -74 -153 -139 -154 -186 -216 -168 1968 -270 -288 -290 -246 -207 -31 -22 49 66 101 125 176 1969 236 253 297 297 276 159 94 90 98 187 160 191 1970 233 126 126 128 46 -69 -106 -154 -157 -154 -166 -256 1971 -201 -316 -325 -236 -182 -207 -176 -163 -188 -202 -237 -288 1972 -97 -20 -128 -24 -7 37 83 163 155 296 317 399 1973 330 257 149 98 22 -84 -7 -83 -78 -115 -131 -261 1974 -368 -392 -363 -358 -276 -210 -118 -127 -204 -232 -205 -224 1975 -248 -249 -264 -280 -282 -287 -244 -305 -393 -404 -429 -557 1976 -503 -423 -368 -322 -320 -221 -225 -132 -105 -4 4 39 1977 54 -4 -21 -50 41 38 -23 -14 6 53 59 6 1978 108 16 0 -50 -46 -53 0 -55 -63 -59 -38 21 1979 48 -22 42 34 3 119 63 80 145 130 148 156 1980 180 114 164 165 160 139 80 58 94 42 107 86 1981 8 -41 72 44 71 128 85 -16 102 145 118 154 1982 160 57 49 45 135 157 114 118 171 248 271 366 1983 406 406 351 293 252 351 239 198 184 143 109 122 1984 143 167 161 125 51 5 32 -9 103 -20 -35 -121 1985 -108 -47 -51 -71 -58 -46 -11 -60 -33 -40 8 40 1986 -14 8 31 31 61 90 76 54 118 178 199 182 1987 193 188 308 278 336 319 394 451 517 428 507 443 1988 452 476 449 325 247 189 127 130 130 76 -25 -121 1989 -80 -81 -87 -39 -2 -6 120 100 101 101 100 92 1990 45 172 166 217 186 127 187 240 192 243 201 234 1991 203 175 167 230 296 254 291 206 170 155 156 140 1992 125 155 119 175 202 170 178 92 93 -4 -54 -46 1993 30 38 86 161 167 168 97 68 99 88 163 147 1994 137 66 113 153 164 85 76 29 62 182 235 226 1995 254 281 316 266 260 323 348 279 231 192 201 196 1996 170 218 206 179 181 225 209 157 162 117 113 75 1997 33 41 156 209 293 442 427 469 516 571 645 759 1998 681