Average temperature is one way to gauge the severity of a winter season. Another measure is to quantify just the severe cold. The winter with the highest average temperature (2011-12) had just 16 days (October through April) of subzero temperatures. The winter with the second-warmest average, 1986-87, had just 14 such days. The winter with the lowest average temperature (1886-87) had 76 days below zero. The second lowest average was in 1935-36 and that winter had 73 subzero days. The average temperature cannot yet be calculated for this winter but it will likely finish as the seventh or eighth warmest. So far this winter, there have been just 18 subzero days. The last notably cold winter was in 2013-14 and there were 69 subzero days. The average number of calendar days during an entire winter season with a subzero temperature is 47.
