text: Weather Talk: Cold and mild have evened out this winter | WDAY
  Weather Talk: Cold and mild have evened out this winter
  By John Wheeler on Feb 7, 2018 at 5:15 a.m.
  There has been some cold weather this winter. There have been a few mild stretches as well. As a whole, the winter has worked out to be about average so far.
  The month of November ended up nominally colder than average by a half a degree. December started out mild, but a week of very cold weather starting at Christmas brought the mean temperature for the month down to three-tenths of a degree colder than average.
  January had stretches of cold weather and mild weather, but the mild won out, and the mean temperature ended up 1.9 degrees warmer than average. February, so far, has been colder than average.
  To some extent, our temperatures this winter have been tempered by the lack of snow. A deep, white ground cover would have made the cold spells colder and would have held back the warmth during this winter's mild spells.