It may be cold comfort for Americans in the East and Midwest who shivered through blizzards and subfreezing blitzes, but this past winter was the second-warmest on record for the continental United States, federal meteorologists calculated Monday. The Lower 48 states averaged 37.13 degrees Fahrenheit (2.85 degrees Celsius) from December through February, which is considered meteorological winter. That’s just one-third of a degree below that of the warmest winter, a record set two years ago.