What distinguishes this winter from 01 - 02 was that right after 9/11, the precip. just about shut off (which was helpful for NYC and their long arduous cleanup of Ground Zero through that winter). But then that put our area in an extreme drought - and that was during the wintertime!
And the lack of precipitation continued through spring, which resulted in extended and often excessive heat during that summer of '02 (where dry begat dry). And by late August 2002, the CWA was in horrible shape!!
Compare to the current conditions -
So as long as the precip faucet is flowing like it is now (vs what happened back almost 20 years ago), it won't really be the same... Seems it's closer to 2011/2012 (at least where I am based on what fell so far).