Bad Boy!

The National Atmospheric Oceanic Administration's Climate Prediction Center in Asheville is fingering a new El Nino in the Pacific as the proximate cause of our wild winter roller coaster thus far. And they're saying this could go on strong right into March.

I was wondering how El Nino got that name, "The Boy" (as opposed to La Nina, "The Girl"). The Boy is named for the Christ child, according to the article linked above, because of the warming of the Pacific currents around Christmastide. South American fishermen, who knew nothing of Southern Appalachia, took that warming as a blessed sign. We take it as a wallop to the solar plexus.