I think people spend way too much time concentrating on the official date at which winter starts there without recognizing the speed at which it approaches in those latitudes.
My cousin spent a winter in north central Alaska and was amazed at how fast the seasons changed. He said they went from shirtsleeve summer to 6 feet of snow winter in under 6 weeks.
Heck, I was even amazed in northern Minnesota. Hot as could be with huge mosquitoes right up to Labor Day, then the light got that golden fallish tinge, the wind started to blow, the temperature started dropping day by day, the leaves turned and blew off in a matter of weeks and then snow, by October.
Here, we get a cool spell, then “Indian Summer” with daytime temps in the seventies or even eighties, and fall color doesn’t start until late October or early November. Something frozen usually falls a little bit before Christmas, with the first measurable winter precipitation coming between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Some years it doesn’t happen at all, like this year thus far.