Thanks for inspiring an idea for a future blog post.... I completely agree w/ you that, for certain sectors and interests, it is more meaningful to look at shorter term forecasts (Week 2, Week 3-4, the the coming month), which fluctuate a lot more than season-to-season changes.  As you can see in this recent blog post, we touched on the variability *within* the 2017-18 winter here:

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/madden-julian-oscillation-has-been-active-so-far-winter-here-why-it-matters

NOAA Climate Prediction Center *also* produces more frequent, near-term forecast products (and their verifications... the links in the blog post can be used to get their verifications as well).  See all forecasts on the CPC home page here:  http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov