my understanding is that "el nino" is the result of a cyclical interplay of warm air and water currents, which effects our weather in ways that could be described from moderate to extraordinary. While the "El Nino" phenomenon has been with us for thousands of years and on a regularly recurring cycle the severity is without doubt effected by the increasing surface temperature of the earth occuring as a result of "global warming". Weather is a vast, complicated and chaotic system delicately effected by subtle or drastic changes in one area that can have strong impacts in other areas.

While it may feel comforting to imagine that the current "strange weather" is the result of regularly occuring natural phenomenon I believe the reality is that there is much too much interaction of forces to accurately compartmentalize in this way.

Granted I'm saying all this from very much a layman's perspective- I am neither a scientist nor more specifically a climatologist/meteorologist so I could be dead wrong.

So as not to hijack this thread too much let me just go back to the OP and say I'm going to be looking to this post for inspiration as our New England temperatures drop to 0F and below next week as I'm riding into work. I'm off to buy some ski goggles for the ride in on Monday morning.