Winter could start early, like late October or early November this year. There are very cold temperatures right now in Alaska (with records), the Arctic and Canada. Temperature map: http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/extreme/gfs/current/nh_raw_temp_000.png
It looks like all of Alaska and Northern Canada were below 8F last night and some areas were -12F!
There are Arctic temperatures that are at least -24F! Ice is rapidly building: http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/seaice/extent/AMSRE_Sea_Ice_Extent_L.png
Buy heaters now before the chaos begins!