So, we all know that each element has a side effect (burning, draining stamina, draining mana). I was wondering if these side effects carry over to weapons when an element is applied, and it appears that they do. I saw a war axe of frost, which said "deals 5 frost damage and half as much damage to stamina". So yay!

This gives a little more dimension to enchanted effects. What's more, no doubt we will only be able to apply an effect once (i.e. 1 frost damage enchantment), but at least now we can build up on the side effect as well (i.e. 1 frost damage enchantment and 1 damage stamina enchantment) to really push home certain strengths/weakness'. I am rather excited about this

Indeed. I'm really looking forward to having a battleaxe (max-perked ) with maxed out Shock and Fire enchants on it. It'll destroy health and magicka in one fell swoop.

If enchanted with Ice and Lightning, then in one swoop, it will damage all the three attributes at once: Health, Magicka and Stamina.

I wonder if we're going to come across high level NPCs with weapons enchanted in this way... Could certainly make things interesting.

True but fire is the most damaging element (points wise) and causes extra damage over time. Depends what your going for I suppose.