Portastorm wrote:Sorry russham3. My bad. Welcome to Storm 2k!
A poor man's explanation:
AO -- Arctic Oscillation. When it is negative, it means very cold Arctic air is pooled to the north of us and high pressure is over the Arctic regions and lower pressure in the middle latitudes. This tends to drain it southward towards us.
NAO -- North Atlantic Oscillation. When this is negative, it usually means a large trough is over the eastern (and maybe central) US. When it is neutral or positive, it can mean ridging over the east and a trough over the west or central US (troughs mean stormy weather). Neutral can also mean a zonal flow.
PNA -- Pacific/North American Teleconnection -- a positive PNA means ridging over Hawaii and the intermountain region of the western US and often means below normal temps for our area.
MJO -- Madden-Julian Oscillation -- involves areas of storminess and convection in the tropics. When the MJO is in Phase 7 or 8, it tends to average colder and wetter than normal in our area.
Anyone feel free to chime in or improve my rough explanation. I'm sure it can be improved!
Portastorm, no improvement needed
