2012-13 was still a lot better than this one. There was some measurable lowland snow in late December and then a pretty delightful inversion in mid-January with a string of subfreezing highs in many places. This winter is pacing to be the worst since 2002-03, but even that one had the Halloween cold which produced some lows in the mid teens. Decidedly more wintry than anything we've seen yet.

Can always count on fake cold in the WV!

It's very hard to make much sense of the models right now. Crazy spread of potential outcomes in 8-10 day period (temp spread on ensembles is like 30-40 degrees!). For all the advancements in weather modeling, I'm not sure we have any more clarity on what's going to transpire for the last third of January than we would enlisting the help of a magic 8 ball. Kind of fun actually.

Wasn't it a "PV stretch" that coincided with the really cold blasts into the Midwest in early December?

It looks better than its last run.