[Winter 2012/13 Pt 5... Expectations, Hopes And Wishes]

possible winter problem with gulf stream?

Please can anyone tell me whether Sandy has sucked the life out of the gulf stream that was supposed to have been delivering all that gobsmacking amount of heat energy to europe to keep us warm through the winter ?

[Sea Surface Temperature - SSTs]

Please could someone publish an explanation of what the multitude of 'short hand' metorological letters mean in English - for instance -ve PDO - whats that supposed to mean ?? For a newbie it makes reading and understanding post almost impossible so a little list of 'this is what it means' would make this site even more interesting - thanks !