# import the data server interface
from CMIP3DataServer import DataServer

# create a date server object to access surface u-wind from ingv_echam4 model
d = DataServer(Field='uas',Source='ingv_echam4')

# get a list of all the dates corresponding to the 1962 DJF season
# this is understood as the season Dec 1961 - Feb 1962
# note that you can't do 1961 DJF because there's no data for 1960
dates = d.getDateList(Year=1962,Season='DJF')    
print dates

# retrieve the u-wind for the first snapshot (1 Dec 1961)
# the *dates[0] syntax unpacks the date into year, month day as required
# look at python docs to understand this better
# note that uas has the correct dimensions etc here (no need to mess with scale_fac, add_offset)
uas = d.snapshot(*dates[0])
print uas.shape