LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - It's been an unusually cold winter this year - and even more unusual is the fact that snow has been reported in 49 out of 50 U.S. states. Snowfall has even been reported in tropical Hawaii. The only state not to report any far this season is sunny Florida.

There were big snow and ice events in the Southeast, Plains, and Midwest this week. In other words, snow is present in 69.4 percent of the lower 48, which is more than double than December. This is highly unusual, though it's hard to put a date on when this last happened because records aren't kept on this kind of event.

Two storms began to churn this week: one in the northern Plains and Midwest, and one in Texas. The southern winter storm took a track across the Gulf Coast, pulling warm, moist air over an extreme arctic blast that set up over the eastern half of the United States late last week. This provided fuel for the storm to carve a path of snow, sleet and freezing rain from Texas to the Carolinas.

The United States hasn't seen the last of this icy onslaught. Now that the southern-track storm has moved into the Atlantic and is moving north, the other Midwest storm is going to merge with it, creating a Nor'easter event that could dump up to two feet of snow in the Northeast. Winter storm warnings and advisories have been posted for the event - 32 states have winter storm advisories issued.

Here are some snow forecasts for some major cities:

Washington DC: 2-4 inches
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 4-6 inches
New York, N.Y.: 6-12 inches
Hartford, Connecticut: 15-20 inches
Boston, Massachusetts: 12-16 inches

The snow and cold started early this winter and has been extreme for the majority of the country. Usually the Southeast avoids the blast, but not in 2011. We're all feeling a little "snowed in" this winter.