Ideas of a stratospheric influence on tropospheric weather and climate
has been around for quite a while, and is currently undergoing a push
again. If you're interested in Strat-Trop coupling then a good place
to look for current research is on Dave Thompson's Annular Mode
website - there's a repository of papers there.
http://www.atmos.colostate.edu/ao/ResPapers/index.html