IT may all be linked to a warm current off South America
Meteorologists have a saying: "There is no such thing as really abnormal weather." But even seasoned scientists have been astounded by the extremes of this year's weather. While winds, rains and high seas have lashed California, much of the rest of the U.S. has basked in an exceptionally mild winter. In Australia, usually drenched by rain during the Southern Hemisphere's autumn, there has been a drought that has been called the worst in 200 years. In the eastern Pacific, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador have been staggered by record rains,...