Last winter was *highly* unusual - like a once every 25 years occurrence. I've lived here for nearly 20 now. Last winter was only the second time I've seen considerable snow and the first its lasted for more than a day or so. Usually snow lasts a matter of hours at the most around here. This year is supposed to be warmer and I think perhaps dryer because of El Nino and some other factors (or is it La Nina... I can never remember which is which and what exactly they do....)

The year before last we had couple of weeks or so very cold mornings and intermittent ice - which IMHO was much, much worse than the snow. I could ride my cross bike in the snow, but the ice was treacherous.