Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   With all this global warming Date:   2/3/2011 10:22:57 AM

Pre-brief:  La Niñas are cool girls… El Niños are warm boys... Al Gore is...(fill in the blank)

AccuWeather Chief Long-Range Meteorologist Joe Bastardi has pointed out that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which is a pattern of Pacific climate variability that shifts phases usually about every 20 to 30 years, has shifted into a 'cold' or 'negative' phase. Over the past 30 years or so, according to Bastardi, the PDO has been 'warm' or 'positive.' This change to a cold PDO over the next 20 to 30 years, he says, will cause La Niñas to be stronger and longer than El Niños. Bastardi adds that when El Niños do kick in, if they try to come on strong like they did last year, they will get 'beaten back' pretty quickly.

Bastardi thinks that not only will the next few winters be colder than normal for much of the U.S., but that the long-term climate will turn colder over the next 20 to 30 years. 'What's interesting about what we're seeing here is that [the current La Niña] is starting so cold,' said Bastardi, "and it's coinciding with bigger things that are pushing the overall weather patterns and climate in the Northern Hemisphere and, in fact, globally over the next 20 to 30 years that we have not really dealt with, nor can we really quantify. 

Meanwhile, Al Gore says it’s just global warming.