And hey...why not see if anyone in the Bush regime learned anything.

La Niña warms winter, bodes ill for hurricanes
By MIKE TONER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/03/06<

A new La Niña, a cooling of the ocean surface that can have global consequences — from the promise of a warmer, drier spring in Georgia to a new wild card in what forecasters already expect will be a hyperactive hurricane season — has emerged in the Pacific, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday.

Past cooling episodes in the same area of the central Pacific have been linked to increases in the number and intensity of hurricanes, but climate experts say it's too early to tell what role this La Niña will play in the 2006 hurricane season, already expected to be more active.

"Historically, a La Niña typically makes for stronger and more frequent hurricanes, but this is a weak La Niña," NOAA climate analyst Ed O'Lenic said at the American Meteorology Society meeting in Atlanta.

"It's still intensifying," O'Lenic said. "We expect this La Niña to last three to six months. It is possible that it will weaken by the time the hurricane season begins, but this is definitely something we will be looking at when we make our forecast for the season in May."

Independent outlooks for the hurricane season, issued as the record 2005 season was winding down, have already predicted that this year will be twice as active as normal, with 17 named storms, including nine hurricanes.

Whether La Niña's effects persist into the hurricane season or not, climate experts say the cooling of the tropical Pacific, now about one degree below normal, is already making its presence felt thousands of miles away with a warmer winter over much of the nation.