But we still found ways in the past to snow at times with the positive NAO, correct? I do not remember insects flying around outside, ever, before recent years, in mid winter. And grass wasn't green like it is now. And we never got anywhere near 80 in midwinter. We'd still get piddly 2-4 events from time to time, and the higher elevations of course had more. We really started to see bland winters in the 90's with warmer temps, outside of some notable anomalies ( 94 and 96 ). Then something happened in the 2000's and we started getting monster storms. That could be over for awhile.