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Feel free to discuss data quality issues; I won't participate in that discussion, but it is probably possible to disparage data quality in multiple ways.

But if you want to know why March is ranked the way it is, this is why:

Are the anomalies real? Ask the snow:

Take Your Pick with the March 2008 Temperatures

"March snow cover extent on the Eurasian Continent was the lowest on record."

Great blog discussion on that thread, too. IHIAB.

take your pick
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) just came out with their March climate report for the U.S. and the world. Here is a sampling of what it says........

—The average global temperature (land/ocean surface combined) for the month of March was 0.71 degrees celsius (1.28 F) above normal (against the 20th century mean) making it the 2nd warmest on record for the month of March (using 129 years of record keeping).

If you don't like those numbers then take a look at a few of the other sources for March 2008 global temperature measurement..........

RSS/MSU data

Global +0.08 c (More detail right here, courtesy of Anthony Watts)
Northern Hemisphere +0.47 c
Southern Hemisphere -0.33 c

UAH/MSU data

Global +0.10 c
Northern Hemisphere +0.43 c
Southern Hemisphere -0.24 c

GISS data

Global +0.67 c

Back to the NCDC March highlights.......

—The global (land only) surface temperature was the warmest on record! The main reason for this
is the fact that much of the Asian Continent (we are talking a major chunk of land here) was well above normal for the month of March.

—March snow cover extent on the Eurasian Continent was the lowest on record.

—The global ocean surface was 13th warmest on record, again thanks tp the warmth around Eurasia (Sorry, nice try La Nina!)

U.S. Highlights from the NCDC.......

—The average temperature for the U.S. was 0.22 Celsius (0.4 degrees F) below normal for March.

—Western snow pack was among the healthiest in more than a decade, which is great news.

From Watts up with that

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com

You’d think the answer would be obvious, but here we have a NOAA operated USHCN climate station of record providing a live experiment. It always helps to illustrate with photos. Today I surveyed a sewage treatment plant, one of 4 stations surveyed today (though I tried for 5) and found that for convenience, they had made a nice concrete walkway to allow servicing the Fisher-Porter rain gauge, which needs a paper punch tape replaced one a month.

Here is what you see in visible light:

Gee, I wonder why they show higher temperatures than RSS

From Watts up with that

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com

You’d think the answer would be obvious, but here we have a NOAA operated USHCN climate station of record providing a live experiment. It always helps to illustrate with photos. Today I surveyed a sewage treatment plant, one of 4 stations surveyed today (though I tried for 5) and found that for convenience, they had made a nice concrete walkway to allow servicing the Fisher-Porter rain gauge, which needs a paper punch tape replaced one a month.

Here is what you see in visible light:

Gee, I wonder why they show higher temperatures than RSS