Forget Punxatawny Phil, Look to Siberia Sam!!

Scientists have developed a model to accurately predict whether the winter in North America and Northern Europe will be more severe or less severe. Called sCast, The model uses the amount of snow in Siberia to predict the severity of winter weather in the northern hemisphere.

Apparently, severe snow in Siberia causes a warming in the upper atmosphere that pushes down on the jet stream. This causes the jet stream to move farther south, thereby bringing colder air farther south. See, it's not that we can't predict the weather. It's just that we haven't figures out what markers to look for!