Tudor Hughes wrote:

On Jan 5, 3:49*pm, Richard Dixon wrote:
Another viewpoint, from the New York Times...(correct newsgroup this
time...!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/op...ohen.html?_r=1

Richard

Everybody seems to be now jumping on the bandwagon that cold
winters, at least in some sectors of the N Hemisphere, are caused by
the circulation changes that come about with global warming. This has
a certain plausibility to it but why did no-one mention it a few years
ago and say that this was something we might expect?

I've been saying it for years, Tudor. It seems inevitable that global warming
will cause some changes in circulation patterns. Any changes in NW Europe,
however subtle, are far more likely to result in colder winters than warmer
ones because our "traditional" winter climate is so anomalously warm for our
latitude. Any reduction in the westerlies, as has been the case in the past
couple of winters, will almost inevitably lead to colder winters here even
though globally the temperature is rising.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.