Note:  The track record for WSI seems to have been better than the CPC for the past few winters.  

Breaking News : posted Dec 4, 11:50 AM
WSI Predicts Warmer-than-Normal Winter for Major Population Centers 
A warmer-than-normal winter is expected in the major population centers along the East Coast and Florida as well as the Southwest, while cooler-than-normal weather is predicted in the Plains, Great Lakes states, Pacific Northwest and the coastal sections of California, according to WSI Corp., which issued an end-of-November update to its seasonal forecast. 
For the marketplace, WSI said the winter 2001/2002 outlook "paints a less bullish picture for the December-January period in the Northeast -- compared to last year's frigid, record cold temperatures that sent natural gas and power prices soaring." This winter by contrast should be milder and "much less volatile." 
WSI expects the following monthly trends: 
December: Warmer-than-normal temperatures across the East Coast states, the Gulf Coast states and parts of the Southwest. Cooler-than-normal in the northern and central Plains and most of the western half of the country. 
January: Warmer-than-normal over most of the country, with the exception of the southern Plains, which includes Texas and Oklahoma. 
February: Sharply cooler temperatures in the northern two-thirds of the United States including the Northeast. Major cities along the California coast also will be cooler than normal. Warmer-than-normal in the Southwest, southern Plains and Southeast. 
"The expectation of warmer-than-normal temperatures in the major cities in the East is different from the CPC (Climate Prediction Center) outlook, in which no forecast was made for the East," said Todd Crawford, WSI's seasonal forecaster. 
WSI was one of the few services to accurately predict a warm November in the Northeast and the United States overall, and its three-month seasonal forecasts have been accurate for seven of the last eight periods, it said. WSI issued its season weather advisories twice monthly.