Remember last winter?
Sunday September 5, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

It happened after two different weather systems in the northern hemisphere collided and produced colder, wetter weather across large parts of Northern Europe and North America.

Scientists have looked back over six decades of records and concluded that El Nino combined with a strongly negative variation in the North Atlantic Oscillator (NAO).

When there is a negative variation in the NAO cold air is brought down from the Arctic.

El Nino produces more precipitation, so the two apparently combined to produce record levels of snow.

Especially in North America.

Their findings are published in the Geophysical Research Letters.

There were certainly some cold temperatures in The Alps though overall the conditions weren't as good as the record-breaking winter of 2008/09.

It was though cold, very cold at times, and the video below shows what people were doing to keep warm in Verbier last December.

Here on PlanetSKI we reported on the cold weather in the UK and how it affected skiing in Scotland and the huge snowfalls seen in North America too.

January 2010, SW London

For the skiers and snowboarders in Scotland though the conclusion of the scientists is not so good.

Last winter was a rare, one in a lifetime occurance, and not an indicator of a shift in the climate that will mean longer and snowier winters.

For more on the story see this article on the BBC.

Next winter could be a La Nina winter according to first observations in North America. But what is a La Nina winter? See a recent PlanetSKI story on the phenomena.

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