Cold Winter in 2008?
The winter of2007/8 has spawned news stories about it's severe cold and has been touted as proof that 'global warming' movement has been fabricated for political gain. However the science indicates that while this last winter has been colder than usual (in parts of N America and over the Pacific), it's still quite a bit warmer than the historic means.



Winter 2008
One indication of this is the latest assessment of the extent of the Arctic sea ice from NASA .

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Arctic sea ice grows and declines seasonally, ranging from an average minimum extent in September of 2.5 million square miles to an average winter maximum extent of 5.9 million square miles in March. This March, instruments on NASA’s Aqua satellite and NOAA and U.S. Defense Department satellites showed the maximum sea ice extent slightly increased by 3.9 percent over that of the previous three years, but it is still below the long-term average by 2.2 percent. Increases in ice extent occurred in areas where surface temperatures were colder than the historical averages. At the same time, as a result of the export of ice from the Arctic, the area of perennial ice decreased to an all-time minimum.

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While this was the fifth least February sea ice extent on record, the story is more interesting when the age of the ice is plotted

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The ice in the Arctic is much younger than normal, with vast regions now covered by first-year ice and much less area covered by multiyear ice. Left: February distribution of ice by its age during normal Arctic conditions (1985-2000 average). Right: February 2008 Arctic ice age distribution

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El Nina
The current drop in temp is in line a the effects expected from an El Nina event. Here is a rollup of the 2008 winter temperatures from NYT article. The El Nina : Nino oscillation is manifested by a decade long oscillation of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific