The headlines were not exaggerating when they said this is probably going to be the coldest week of the winter so far. The cold, however, could get worse, and last through until early March. What has come as a shock is that long-range outlooks had suggested a mild end to winter, thanks to a bout of La Niña in the tropical seas of the Pacific. La Niña may be a household name, but a less well-known tropical phenomenon has helped to crush the hopes of a mild end to winter. This cumbersome title is named after Roland Madden and Paul Julian, who in the early 1970s stumbled on a…

Source: The Times February 06, 2018 00:04 UTC