February dragged up the averages with the 2-3 weeks of extreme warmth in the eastern US...these type outlooks and verification methods don't factor in things like that...there was some very cold air in the Eastern US for 2 weeks in late Dec. and early Jan....and with backloaded seasons in recent years, to only look at dec. thru feb. is meaningless....I'm sorry, but the system needs to be changed...and honestly, since 1980, there isn't much link between la nina and winter patterns...why are we using ENSO data going back to 1950 when the PDO and our climate is in a different state now?