UK Storms and Climate Change

On Christmas Eve, a storm with a central pressure of 929 millibars hit the UK:

For comparison, Hurricane Sandy had a minimum central pressure of 940 mb. An eye was visible in satellite imagery (top center of image):

Just two days later the UK was hit by a storm of 943 mb:

Yesterday, a 948 mb storm was near the Kamchatka Peninsula:

Some have said that the storms affecting the UK are related to "climate change". "Climate change" really just means enhanced greenhouse effect. Increasing greenhouse concentrations would produce the most warming where the greenhouse effect is weakest because that is where infrared transparency is greatest and where there is the most infrared escaping into space that could potentially be absorbed. This tends to be cold polar regions because cold air can contain only very limited amounts of water vapor, the dominant greenhouse gas. Since enhancing the greenhouse effect warms cold areas faster, the temperature contrast is reduced. Extratropical storms such as the one that recently hit the UK are caused primarily by a strong temperature contrast. So "climate change" should reduce the intensity of extratropical storms. Hurricanes on the other hand, are powered primarily by the release of latent heat, not by temperature contrasts.