In 2007, he blamed the late, warm winter on a lack of polar ice. Now he blames the cold, early, snowy, winter on a lack of polar ice.

“If you say it’s going to be warmer than normal, you’re almost always right these days,” said Dr. Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for weatherunderground.com.

I think it’s highly probable that the eastern half of the country will have a warmer winter than normal because of a couple of factors. One is the La Nina episode we’ve got going, and two is the fact that so much of the polar ice cap melted this summer. That’s going to slow down the arrival of winter. Last winter, remember, it wasn’t until the middle of January that the eastern half of the country cooled down.

“When you don’t have a full set of polar ice covering polar waters, it’s harder for big air domes to form and bring us our arctic outbreaks. That same thing is going to happen again this year.

http://www.onthesnow.com/news/a/2904/whither-the-weather

h/t to Marc Morano