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" More winter or less? This year&amp;#039;s groundhog says more. So do the experts, but you can expect it to stay unusually mild. Is this the mildest winter on record? &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s going to be up there, I&amp;#039;m pretty sure,&amp;quot; predicts Jeff Masters, a Weather Underground meteorologist, though complete numbers for last month aren&amp;#039;t yet out. But if current data hold true, it will likely be &amp;quot;one of the three least snowy winters in U.S. history.&amp;quot; Speaking of which, why am I arriving to work sweaty in February? You can thank the Arctic Oscillation Index, which is not the name of a jam band. The AOI tracks atmospheric changes over the Arctic \u2014 positive changes mean a stronger jet stream, negative mean a weaker one. This season has been &amp;quot;particularly positive,&amp;quot; according to the Weather Underground&amp;#039;s reports, keeping all that cold air held up at the North Pole, though some of it is now hitting Europe and will likely cross our shores for a &amp;quot;couple weeks&amp;quot; in mid-February. But wasn&amp;#039;t last winter really bad? Yeah, pretty awful, in fact, leading some to conclude that global warming has put our weather system on the fritz. Which is sort of true: Meteorologists can&amp;#039;t easily attribute one year&amp;#039;s jet stream to overarching conditions, Masters says, but &amp;quot;it is possible, since we&amp;#039;re pumping all these heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere, that we&amp;#039;re seeing some sort of craziness developing as a result. We don&amp;#039;t really know.&amp;quot; Comforting. What is all this called? Indian winter? &amp;quot;Indian winter? Nah,&amp;quot; says Masters. &amp;quot;Maybe we should coin a name. I just call it the Non-Winter of 2011-2012.&amp;quot; Which is only slightly less catchy than Arctic Oscillation Index. Can we blame the groundhog? It might not exactly surprise you to know that Groundhog Day, which transpired Thursday, &amp;quot;doesn&amp;#039;t carry too much&amp;quot; authority in meteorological circles. The tradition, in which a rodent is said to predict the rest of winter by his shadow, started in Europe, where they used not groundhogs but hedgehogs. Now a bunch of us just listen to something named Phil. What happens when he dies, we&amp;#039;re not entirely sure.      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/q-and-a/a12614/groundhog-day-2012-winter-6650667/>