To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

I've heard mixed reviews of long-range forecasting--some people think it's worthless, some think it's useful on a general basis, like you say. It's a bit more of a crapshoot down here, though, because given the geography and temperatures, a front has to come through at exactly the right time of night and the right speed to produce snow rather than rain. It might be possible to say there will be more precipitation in general, but saying there's going to be more snow is on the level of telling you what the weather will be like on January 3rd.