In much of the north the 25th of Jan is considered ON AVERGE , the halfway mark of the heating season by fuel delivery companies. This year however in my section of the NE, we have had a pretty mild first part of the season. it looks like this is changing this week so we may catch up. Its usually about the mean average of the coldest day of the year. Again,..not this year here.

Here we usually get about 6,500 heating degree days ,.I have no real stats to prove it but I always felt that the middle 2000 have the biggest impact on heat costs,than the first and last 2,000 or so...

Most newspapers have the heating degree days listed on their weather page including norms for the date.

I think we still have a bit of cold days to go before it's over.

One of my neighbors use to say that as we head into February "as the daylight lengthens, but the cold strengthens".

Oh that probably true but every day has been a bonus day,..A few days ago the lake that I grew up on had a very thin sheet of ice on it,..not safe to walk out on,..by now most years there would be cars/a bunch of ice fishermen, skaters etc and the ice would be over a foot thick and building,..

Weather folks said NJ would be warmer this winter. And it is being warmer. NJ is sometimes zone 6 and sometimes zone 7. On the planting maps I have been looking at, my location in Central NJ is zone 7.

Sunspots have returned and they are throwing out heat but they are small this week. Weather folks announced a very large heating of the stratosphere over Europe last week. That can push some cold air over the poles down on the US. A lot of this has to do with the tidal pull of the sun and moon and there is a 20 year cycle for that. Looks like it will be kind to us. It moves the jet stream around.

I was under the impression that Ground Hog was the mid point of winter itself.

That is the real reason to celebrate it. I am less than excited about a ceremony focusing on over grown rat. PETA probably would not appreciate how we show our affection around here.