The forecasters said winter was going to be mild and warm this year.

So far, it hasn’t worked out this way. We have rarely seen a cold spell this deep and long in the region, and it hasn’t let up yet.

Maybe this is the new normal, such extremes from flooding to record heat and then record cold. But it’s not something we can get used to.

We’re more used to January highs of 55 degrees, with the occasional dip into the teens. But single digits three nights in a row make a forecast high of 43 this Saturday look warm.

For almost two weeks we have been in a deep freeze, victims of a deep dive jet stream that has made the eastern half the U.S. frigid. It’s so cold that Tallahassee, Fla. is getting snow.

The East Coast has a sort of weather “bomb” taking shape.

Fortunately, we are out of the bomb zone.

Soon, this cold will break and the frigid temperatures will be a distant memory.

Until then, we’ll have to enjoy 35 or 40 degrees as some kind of warm spell.