In article ,
Jonathan Stott writes:
Graham Easterling wrote:

It's also very easy to pick 1 element that's the same. North Atlantic
Sea temperatures, arctic ice extent, etc etc paint a very different
picture.

Has there been any research into looking at past weather patterns and
perhaps assigning some kind of "similarity" metric to the various
elements of previous data?


Yes. When the Met Office first released forecasts for a month ahead, in
the late 1960s and 1970s, IIRC that was how they attempted to do it. But
the forecasts weren't very successful, and were eventually dropped (or
at any rate no longer release to the general public).
--
John Hall
"Honest criticism is hard to take,
particularly from a relative, a friend,
an acquaintance, or a stranger." Franklin P Jones