I'm guessing it's either already winter proper in the far north, based off of [@Fat Boy Kyle]'s first IC post, and heading into winter in the southern areas like The Cross Roads or especially Southarbor, or else winter is coming to an end but in the far north (being that it [i]is[/i] the far north) it's still hanging on.

I say that because IC descriptions of the North so far have tended to feature lots of snow and ice, while descriptions of The Cross Roads and other southerly areas have featured plenty of mud and wet, which implies "not winter".

But that's just me guessing. ;)