Once upon a time there was a global average temperature set call HADCRUT3.

HADCRUT3 loved 1998. 4 out of the top 10 warmest months were from 1998.

year	month	anomaly
1998	Jul	0.671
1998	Apr	0.647
2007	Jan	0.61
2002	Mar	0.609
1998	Jun	0.606
2002	Jan	0.598
2010	Mar	0.583
2010	Apr	0.571
2003	Oct	0.566
1998	Mar	0.548

And then along came HADCRUT4 whose primary purpose seems to be to make sure the graph of the last 15 years slopes up instead of down.

HADCRUT4 hates 1998. Not only did 2 months from 1998 drop out of the top 10, but Jan 2007 was made .208C warmer than the old Jan 2007.

year	month	anomaly
2007	Jan	0.818
2002	Mar	0.689
2006	Dec	0.687
2010	Apr	0.673
2010	Mar	0.662
1998	Jul	0.66
2002	Jan	0.66
1998	Apr	0.611
2003	Oct	0.602
2010	Jul	0.601

Why? I have no idea.

Paul Homewood has more. Take note of his footnote. There are no new stations in Antarctica. It looks like maybe 6 new stations south of the equator … and we know it is cooling in the south.