2. It is still Autumn not Winter.
It depends which definition of Winter you use. According to Wikipedia
Winter is often defined by meteorologists to be the three calendar months with the lowest average temperatures. This corresponds to the months of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere, and June, July and August in the Southern Hemisphere.
and this seems to be close to how most Europeans think of it. Other regions jave different traditions - the same Wikipedia article mentions that in China Winter is traditionally regarded as starting in early November.
The alternative, Astronimical Winter, has the counter intuitive property of begining on mid-winter's day.