Mild Winter?! Yeah, right...

It seems like just a few weeks ago when folks in the Northeast were complaining about the warm weather and wondering if we were going to get a real winter.

In fact, it was just a few weeks ago, back in late December, when it was about 50 degrees on Christmas day in New York City. The weather was unseasonably warm, and the City had experienced its first snowless December in 100 years.

I doubt that many New Yorkers are complaining about those warm days now, when the City has been in the throes of a cold snap that has left the wind chills hovering in the single digits for much of the last two weeks. Snow is predicted for late Tuesday/early Wednesday--three to six inches worth--and NYC should consider itself lucky that that's all it's getting.

Upstate New York has gotten bombarded with snowfall that's remarkably heavy even for those wintry northern climes. Some areas have been hit with eight to 10 feet of snow, which makes Denver's December/January allocation of the white stuff look pretty tame.

The warm weather in December was a fluke; winter has not gone away. Of course, next week it could be back in the 50s again. It's said that the best way to deal with changeable weather is to dress in layers. So look for me on the streets of the city; I'll be the one with the duffle bag full of 10 layers of clothes, trying to dress appropriately for whatever curveball this El Nino-influenced can throw at me.