Your looking at a strictly IMBY viewpoint. Last winter we had a similar cold stretch in December to the one we just had. We also had a decent NWFS in January which you just had this month. We also had no snow or even legitimate snow threats within 5 days for the foothills and piedmont last winter and that's been the case this winter too. It's been wetter overall since late December than last winter which has helped keep the temps down.
Yes it has been a little colder overall but its not like this winter has been a complete 180 from last. The temperature departures in January are going to look like a La Nina, not an El Niño (cold upper Midwest). The system that brought TN valley snow was more like a La Nina system not El Nino. Most of the mountains and ski areas are still pretty far below their 30 year average for snow but obviously doing better than just east.