It's been warm and I got stuck in a snowstorm in North Carolina at my cousin's house and it's not dry because it rains 1-7 times a week. Pretty okay compared to cold and dry.
I disagree with all of what you said. I got more than 1-2 inches in November. The fact is there WAS a significant pre-xmas snowstorm and the bullseye was south of us.
Can't thaw what was never frozen!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaw_(weather)
http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~schultz/thaw/thaw.html
Funny there's an actual wiki on this "January thaw" and also a debunk of it within the wiki.