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Thank you, Stephen! I am all about anything with peanut butter, so I imagine that peanut butter fudge was amazing. :-) 

 

Regarding the PDO, I admit that I do not know all the factors that are contributing to its persistently negative state recently, and I think it's quite unusual that we had a strong El Nino concurrent with a strongly negative PDO. I will just reiterate that there are several factors separate from ENSO that influence the PDO (discussed, for example, in this paper), so it is possible that these other factors (reemergence of subsurface ocean temperature anomalies, ocean gyre dynamics, stochastic North Pacific atmospheric forcing, etc.) could counter the ENSO influence and lead to ENSO/PDO phasing that differs from the historical norms. 

 

From what I saw, there were some changes in North Pacific sea surface temperatures in the PDO region that were consistent with the influence of El Nino, like the warming along the West Coast of the United States. However, the strengthened Aleutian low was displaced a bit farther east than normal, and high pressure to its west likely helped to maintain the warmth in the central North Pacific. I also wonder if ocean Rossby wave dynamics could have played a role in that region. 

 

I understand the frustration about the snow. Here in New Jersey it feels like it has been forever since we had a classic, big snowstorm. We got a little more this winter than the previous one, but our snowfall was still below average for the third winter in a row.  

In reply to by Stephen S.