Forecasting a cold, early winter

State College — “We could be looking at the coldest November since 2002 — admittedly the past few Novembers have been relatively warm,” Joe Bastardi, chief long-range forecaster for AccuWeather.com said Monday. “However, we could also be setting the stage for a cold December.” In his 2008-09 AccuWeather.com Winter Forecast, Bastardi called for “one of the coldest winters in several years across much of the East,” with “bookends of cold,” in early winter and late January to February. He said that the periods of cold could put a strain on homeowners facing high heating costs.