THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR...

The lights are up, the Christmas tunes have taken over the radio... and usually there's a ton of cold. Winter started early this year and we had a white Halloween and we're going to have a mild Christmas. Temperatures were well below normal as we ended October and started November. That's when we picked up about a third of our seasonal snowfall.

Here's a look at the snowfall so far this season:

And, in contrast, the snowfall we've had over the last 30 days...

Most of us have had just around an inch to four inches of snow in the Upper Midwest over the last month. That has to do with temperatures running above normal and a really calm pattern.

It's quite the contrast from about two months ago. My fellow meteorologist Brandon Marshall alerted me to the fact that both Halloween and Thanksgiving (both in low 30s) will be colder than Christmas... something that doesn't happen too often.

Let's talk about this mild pattern... first off, in the upper levels of the atmosphere the jet stream (storm track) is displaced WELL to the north for this time of year.

A big ridge has moved in overhead and, with the jet stream to the north, warm air has been able to build in. Because that storm track is so far to the north there are no systems coming in to disrupt the warm up.

The past week has been pretty dry and the next six days or so will also be dry...

During the peak of this warm up temperatures will be running 15 to 25 degrees above normal. Here's a look at the high temperatures Sunday:

Monday afternoon: