September 10, 2008 --
No. It's too early to get a clear picture of what our upcoming winter could look like. Erica's Answer:
Long-term climate patterns that help to dictate our winter weather haven't developed yet (or if they are already in existence, we haven't come into the correct season for analysis and forecast). Those climate patterns include the El Nino- La Nina oceanic oscillation in the Equatorial Pacific, the North Atlantic Oscillation near Greenland, and an upper-air wave pattern called a Rossby wave.- Erica