UAH MSU satellite temperature data for the lower troposphere has the globe still cool while global oceans and the tropics are still cooling. However the northern extratropics have warmed in February and March and an anomaly map from the NOAA Climate Diagnostics Bulletin for March shows this warmth to be over Asia. I am interested to hear readers views on how this has evolved and what part has been played by mass movement of warmer tropical air from the south or southwest.
Perhaps the answer is that in March there was a net downdraft of air over Asia causing compression and warming. It would be like a stationary high in Asia. Over the tropics, the opposite may have occurred.