The winter is supposed to be less snowy, but about the same amount of cold in the Northeast. The Northeast, however, is a LARGE area, meteorologically speaking, so it could be snowing like crazy up in the White Mountains of NH, and still be not too unpleasant in Central MA.
We have a very unique situation this winter. We were getting colder due to less solar activity, then the El Nino occurred last winter. That gave us a short term break from the cold that manifested itself in some areas of the US this summer. The increased water vapor last winter also helped to create the historic snow falls. But an El Nino gives you short term warming due to increases in water vapor and long term cooling due to decreasing the heat content within the deep Pacific Ocean. So the short term atmospheric heat from EL Nino is disappearing and being replaced by the underlying solar cooling trend. Add to this a strong La Nina and Moderately Strong PDO and we have a very unique situation. This first winter storm of the season might be an indicator for what is to come. Perhaps it was just the changing of the guard where Old Man Winter replaces Young Lady Summer.