Annual Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Anomaly Update for 2012 | Bob Tisdale – Climate Observations
2012 Global sea surface temperature anomalies ranked 10th warmest, with the peak year continuing to be 1998. The Arctic Ocean sea surface temperature anomalies were the warmest seen in the 31 years of this dataset, which comes as no surprise. The existence of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation in the North Atlantic and the exceptional Arctic sea ice loss in 2012 both contributed to this. At the other end of the globe, Southern Ocean sea surface temperature anomalies were near their lowest in 31 years, ranking 27th. Good thing the Southern Ocean covers more of the globe than the Arctic Ocean.
A bit of trivia: The sea surface temperature anomalies for Pacific Ocean—the largest ocean basin on the planet—have not warmed in 19 years.