The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently made their predictions for the upcoming winter weather.  Here in the Southeast, they think we'll have a warmer and drier winter.  While this sounds great for most of us living down here, it's potentially bad news for our forests.  Many times, colder winters help keep insect pest populations regulated (i.e. under control).  We get into trouble when we don't have a cold winter, as pests basically never stop eating, growing, and reproducing.  The last couple of years we've seen very early (in February) occurrences of southern pine beetle in northern Florida, and it's thought to be partially (if not almost entirely) because we've barely had any cold weather.  A cold snap or two is good for forest health, because without it, those pests just keep on doing their thing.  Also, a drier winter may be nice (yay! no snow) but trees need that moisture - pines don't go doemant like hardwoods.  Their needles are green year round, and there's always some growth happening.  So, a drier period - even in winter - is a droughty period, and droughts are never good for trees.  We'll see if NOAA is correct.  If they are, we'll have to keep an eye out for the health of our forests.