I'm all for a bring-it-on cold snowy winter as much as anyone, but the signs are not looking good.
First, the NOAA shows
January through March as warmer than normal.
Second, the arctic ice set a record low this year, as it did in 2007. The winter of 2007/2008 was one of the best in years, with plenty of snow and constant cold temperatures. One might think that since this year, the arctic ice volume was much lower than the previous record in 2007 that we would have a similar or even better winter.
But, that does not seem to be the case. As the National Snow and Ice Data Center
points out in the Arctic Sea Ice News, conditions could not have been more different.
They say: "Weather conditions prevailing over the summer of 2012 were quite different from those in 2007. The summer of 2007 featured unusually high sea level pressure centered north of the Beaufort Sea and Greenland, and unusually low pressure along northern Eurasia.... In contrast, the summer of 2012 saw unusually low pressure along the Eurasian coastal seas and extending eastward into the Beaufort sea, most prominently over the East Siberian Sea, with unusually high pressure centered over Greenland and the northern North Atlantic."
To me, this indicates "not-so-great winterl". I hope I'm looking at this wrong!