"Trying to pin-point an autumn/winter season with a similar set-up in the Pacific and Atlantic is proving very illusive. The closest match we could find to this year seems to be 2009 but as we explain in the video update, this isn't a particularly good match by any means.
The sea surface temperature anomalies of the major Oceans seem to be very unique and unusual this year, indicating that winter 2015/16 could truly be a "one off" season in terms of one of the biggest climate drivers. This will make the winter forecast potentially very difficult but it will also be very exciting to see how the weather ends up.
Elsewhere, solar activity has weakened during the past week. Sunspot number have dropped a lot since the end of September and solar activity is currently at "very low" levels"
"I think there's a connection between an early build of Russian/Scandinavian snow cover and an increased risk of winter blocking (probably through mid winter sudden stratospheric warming events)
However, it needs to be used carefully in combination with other factors. The issue about last winter was really that we had fairly strong solar activity (coming out of solar maximum) and the Atlantic was in a +NAO state...
So despite the rapid build of snow cover our winter forecast suggested an average winter... The snow cover signal on it's own wasn't enough to move us into a cold winter.
In 2012 though, the rapid build in snow cover, along with what was going on in the Atlantic and Pacific and weak solar activity all combined to bring together a cold winter forecast.
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http://www.gavsweathervids.com/flash.html