The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or 
What does this all mean you may ask? Historically speaking this should mean colder winters for much of the country...ESPECIALLY IN THE WEST!
It is very interesting to note that the west has had very mild winters overall since all three indices went positive in the mid 1970s. Since then the running average for the three have gone negative at times, but never all three at the same time. During the 1945 - 1972 period the average for all of them was constantly negative. During that time the west had many very cold winters and the snowfall was drastically higher in some areas. Past records indicate that the Puget Sound region of Washington State had three times as much snow before 1975 than it currently receives.
This could have implications for global warming, or the lack thereof. An atmospheric research scientist from NOAA told me that computer models have indicated that global warming should result in an increasingly positive AO. The numbers for the AO this winter have been anything but positive!
