The MJO correlation to our sensible weather seems less pronounced than one would expect. Here are some big-time winter months from the past and their predominant MJO octant:
Source: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/mjo/
January 78 - 5
Feb 78 - 7
April 82 - low 7
Feb 83 - COD
March 93 - 3
Feb 94 - high 3-4-5
Feb 96 - COD
Feb 11 - COD
Feb 14 - COD
Feb 15 - COD then low 7-8
The link below from the Aussies has a good database of historical MJO values. It appears that we do poorly when in a lousy state like high 4/5 etc., but many epic stretches have occurred when we are dicking around the COD...for instance February 2015.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/mjo/
Edit: February 94 was high 4/5
It's gonna be tough with the MJO progged to go into a high 4/5. Maybe things improve towards the last week in January. Was it 2007 or 2008 when we went from a mild January to a very cold and sleet-filled February?