I've been watching the same. Apparently the El Nino thing is one of the few reliable weather patterns out there, and whatever phase of whatever moon we are in now points to a cold winter.
Specific to us in the Mid-Atlantic, that means more cold and more wet than normal. Some of the local weather nerds are saying almost twice as much snow. Now, granted we don't get a lot. But last year we did - lots of snow days for the kids. Rather than one or two dumps, we had lots of medium sized snowfalls that snarl everything and everyone. And then the ice. We had lots of ice last winter, too.
I grew up way up north, where Maryland's entire annual snowfall last year could drop in a day, and you'd still have to walk uphill both ways to get to school (my nephew's stood in 26" of fresh powder in Mexico, NY waiting for the bus on a day my kids were out for 2"). Still, you have to respect the fact they just are not equipped to handle it down here. Likewise, my poor nephew's started school after Labor Day in a hot building because they don't have AC. My kids think 90 degrees in fine; my nephew's think anything over 70 is a heat wave. Regional.
But a cold winter for me means I moved my pig slaughter dates up by about a month. Frozen water and 300+ hogs don't mix. I am culling down the flocks of birds early, and avoided hatching new ones in late summer so we wouldn't have a sudden chill cause me to scramble to warm birds that haven't fully feathered out and plumped up. And it also means that we are working to add extra wood to the piles, because our primary heat is an outdoor boiler. I'm trying to double our normal winter load. Propane tank (backup heat) is already full with about 900 gallons bought using the cheaper summer prices.
It's already cooler than normal, following a cooler summer. The upside is the grass this summer never went brown. It was mild and nice all around. Of course, I think the Bay is cooler so its tempering effects will be diminished (we're a mile from the water).
Everyone here is saying the same thing: plan on it getting cold early, and staying cold late.
