Don't know whether this article has been referenced elsewhere, but it is from today's Sunday Times here:
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/National/article1359485.ece
"Switch in jet stream blamed for havoc
Britain’s meteorologists have coined a new term for the succession of storms battering the nation: the Ebdon effect, writes Jonathan Leake.
They believe the remarkable succession of powerful storms that have crossed the Atlantic to assault the country with gales and rain are linked to the equatorial jet stream, a giant belt of air that flows around the entire globe, at a height of 10 to 25 miles above the equator.
In 1975 Bob Ebdon, a little-known Met office scientist, discovered that when the equatorial jet stream changes direction and starts flowing west to east along the equator — as now — it sharply raises the risk of a succession of powerful storms hitting Britain.
“The current flow, from west to east, means the equatorial jet stream is flowing in the same direction as the polar jet stream that brings Britain its weather,” said Professor Adam Scaife, head of monthly to decadal prediction at the Met Office “This allows the polar jet stream to grow stronger and move north, which in turn increases our exposure to depressions and storms that would otherwise have hit southern Europe.
“The polar jet stream also gets stronger and has exceeded 220mph — nearly twice as strong as normal — on many occasions this winter. These links were first discovered by Bob Ebdon.”
Ebdon’s revelation may help explain one of Britain’s biggest weather disasters of the last century, the Great Storm of 1987, when hurricane-force winds ripped across southern England destroying millions of trees and wrecking homes.
“Although we can’t say the Ebdon effect caused the recent storms, we can say it significantly increased the risk of them happening,” said Scaife. “I’ve looked back through the records and found the jet streams were in the same state in October 1987 during the Great Storm.”
This weekend Britain looked set for yet another battering, with a huge depression moving across the Atlantic. There is, however, some good news ahead — at least for meteorologists.
The Met Office has found the equatorial jet stream’s changes in direction, known as the quasi-biennial oscillation, can be predicted months or even years ahead, an observation that could bring sharp improvements in long-range forecasting. Scaife and his colleagues are building a computer model to exploit the finding.
For the rest of us, there may be hope in observations that the equatorial jet stream’s strength is waning. Over the coming months, it should first halt then restart in the opposite direction.
What kind of weather might that bring next winter? Weather is essentially chaotic, so no one can be sure, but there is at least a chance of something different — perhaps a big freeze and lots of snow. It is winter after all.
@jonathan__leake"