[lbo-talk] Europe Freezes

[Andy]

On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 9:39 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Feb 4, 2012, at 7:30 AM, Joel Schalit wrote:
>
>> I don't know about you guys, but it's pretty fucking cold in Turin. Fairly straightforward. Third winter in a row like this for me in Europe. They all suck.
>
> 61 degrees (16 for you europansies) in New York the other day.

Here's some background --

Current temperature anomalies in the northern hemisphere:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2027

Apparently this sort of pattern comes with a low Arctic Oscillation
index, a measure of the difference between highs and lows over the
Arctic and below.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao_index.html

The current situation bears resemblance to the winter of 10-11, when
in froze in much of the US while it rained in Greenland:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/December-2009-record-cold-spells.htm

I don't get yet the causal relationship between the AO and these
patterns, but watch, James, as I fail to use my own incomprehension of
a technical subject to conclude that it's bullshit.  Tadaaaaah!

-- 
Andy