He says the MJO can be an important predictor of the state of the NorthAtlanticOscillation - which controls much of our weather in the UK - about 2-4 weeks in advance.
She said that this year's conditions were partly caused by a move to a negative phase of the NorthAtlanticOscillation which would be likely to lead to more frequent cold, drier winters - like the 1960s - and also wetter summers for 10-20 years.
But by the Berkeley team's analysis, the global temperature correlates more closely with the state of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) index - a measure of sea surface temperature in the northAtlantic.