Negative NAO and cold Eurasian winters: How exceptional was the winter of 1962/1963?

[knocker]

Since the mid 1980s frequent positive phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) linked to a higher-than-normal pressure difference between the Azores high and Icelandic low pressure centres and stronger westerlies (Hurrell, 1995; Thompson and Wallace, 1998; Osborn, 2006) have led to higher winter temperatures over most of western Europe. Harsher winters were more frequent between the 1950s and the 1980s (see Figure 9 in Graham et al., 2006).

 

Even though mild winters similar to the recent ones did occur they alternated with colder winter seasons. The best remembered is probably the winter of 1962/1963 when temperatures were well below zero across most of Europe. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wea.34/epdf