Winter.... why hath thou forsaken us?

I've probably mentioned this already, but in Calgary, we are experiencing one of our warmest, driest winters on record. We have received snow a couple of times, but it's never been deep and it's never stayed on the ground more than a week. This is because we've probably had a chinook once a week, enough to warm up the air and melt the snow away. The forecasted high for this weekend is expected to reach 10 or 12C (about 54F). That's Oregon coast weather. It's February! In Canada!

So what's the problem? Has winter lost its edge? Nope. It just moved to the other side of the globe is all. Apparently what we're missing is our arctic vortex. It normally sits over northern Canada, angrily glaring at all the drunken Canadians and their hockey, spawning winter storms and arctic cold fronts. The effects are felt all over Canada and into the US. But this year, Mr Vortex decided to park its ass over Greenland. The result - Europe and Asia are being hit with the wicked weather we'd normally be getting.

Or, if my mom was able to get her two cents in here, she'd offer that it's just the Russians playing with the weather again.