I reckon a protracted discussion is exactly what we all need.
I'm going to take my hangover & read a few papers. I want to know what causes those high pressures in the 1st place.
I've asked Mike Wallace, an expert on global circulation/climate here at UW, about that. His response was that it's a very interesting question and that to his knowledge there are no studies that give a good mechanism for the persistence of those sorts of patterns. "Natural variability" is not an entirely satisfying answer, but in a system as complicated as the global climate, trying to make a solid mechanistic argument can be difficult... you can make lots of correlations, but the correlation=/=causation thing still applies.
Andy
