To: nspolar who wrote (22374 ) 11/26/2002 4:12:43 PM From: Roebear Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 36161 ns, The Great Red Spot has moved to your neighborhood! Warm water in the Gulf of Alaska is the main contributing factor this year. As has been well talked about by Joe Bastardi of Accuweather. That and the warm water off the coast of of US, along with complimentary NAO, AO and PDO postures are nullifying the El Nino which is too moderate to have much effect anyway this winter; all of this will make for an interesting winter in the Eastern US. Some of this is contributing to the CA warm weather, there are other factors which I don't have time to get into*. But a warm winter west of the Rocky Mtns is common in analog years to this year while east of the Rocky Mtns it is cold. I was doing some work on the precipitation in CA for analog years, but haven't finished, so have no comments at this time on that. *I eat my own cooking with my winter weather forecasts, ggg. Wife's tires are shot so decided to go with dedicated winter tires (and later summer tires/wheels), Blizzaks and new sport wheels arrived today just in time for tonights little snow storm (as predicted) and I have to get them on her Solara so she and the girls can go shopping while I and the guys go hunting over the holiday, ggg!! Probably would not have to bother, but I think a lot of the wife and keep good tires and brakes on her car. BTW since I will be gearing up and going UP them thar hills to enjoy the Great Outdoors, I'll be scarce here on SI for up to a week. In my experience, for those with positions already filled, this next week or so is the most BORING time of year for golds anyway. Best of luck all, Roebear