The Weather Channel waits a bit to issue their winter forecast.. the NOAA does it in the fall. I think Accuweather does it the winter before (I kid, I kid. But they do at around the end of the summer and sometimes get it right on the money in some freakishly psychic way.) 

But the Weather Channel waits. 

They waited so long I actually missed it when they issued it–November 23!

But since I was searching for weather related news–while looking outside at about 13 inches of snow that fell yesterday–I found it. Read it. Digested it. Became somewhat dyspeptic. 

The point at which I cringed:

WSI forecasters looked at several other technical indices and long-range computer models that also point to an above-average chance of blocking patterns in the northern latitudes – the kind of patterns that can force bitterly cold air from the polar and Arctic regions southward into the U.S.

WSI says that, based on conditions over the Pacific Ocean, the West Coast is more likely to be protected from those intrusions by a northward bulge in the jet stream – known as a high-pressure ridge – and that those cold air intrusions are more likely to be pointing toward the East Coast and the Deep South instead.

So. Get ready for that.