Ha I did the same thing-I wanted to make big piles that would last. Of course it was the 80's, so snow was rare and it was somewhat of a novelty to shovel.
I have barely shoved/cleared here in 2 years...once last March for the 10 incher and this Jan for the 3 inches...other than that, the shovels and blower sit idle along with the 5 gallon bucket of rock salt I bought before last winter (has yet to be opened)
I would not expect any big changes-this god awful pattern has been locked in place and too much to fix overall.... Models have some headfakes, but I'm not buying into any of it.
Too much to fix this year, I think the cancel calls are justified this year...of course central and northern NE have better chances due to latitude but for the bulk of CT/RI/MA it's over.
they still could. One HECS is all it takes. Temperature wise, though, those forecasts are toast, we're looking at a top 10 warmest winter. Anyone see a forecast for that?
Judah Cohen and Amy Butler on twitter have been talking about this much of the winter and how the lack of disruption was going to lead to mild conditions over the CONUS. This coupled with other unfavorable events pretty much sealed our fate. We'll have to hope for a lucky SECS or something but by and large it's over.
The general public (around me at least) had the idea that this was going to be a brutal winter. I heard a few people say it-based on what? Likely click bait twitter and internet posts on facebook and other social media. There was little to support for a "severe" or "brutal" winter.....
Amongst many factors, the warm water on the NW shore of Australia killed this year. Makes the MJO want to stay in the warm phases. Couple that with the super positive AO, +EPO and -NAO and we're toast.