No doubt. Was it Mark Twain that said something about relying on statistics? Keeping that in mind, something else to consider when using "average" temperatures is that just a few warm days can skew the average. Five days of 60 degree temperatures and 25 days of 9 degree temperatures would average just below 18 degrees for the month. Before relying on those average temperatures we need a climatologist or meterologist to tell us what they mean. In looking at the averages, it would seem that there never ever was a month that was unusually bitterly cold in the history of the weather service, and that every month hovered just below and just above the usual temperature from year to year. I know I have lived through an "bitterly cold" winter or two, and I bet you have too. But I bet if you look at the average month to month temperature for that same winter that there would not be much of a downward blip.