7-8 months is certainly exaggerating, but 5 months is still a pretty long time to have snow on the ground.
At least the snow is white for most of this time (rather than dirty/sooty brown/grey as in many other cities), and it's less windy and humid than I'm used to in the winter (so it doesn't feel as cold as the thermometer says).
As for snow, 7-8 months is exaggerating, if not pure lying :) It's true, that the weather is not African, then again it is really varied and one of the few places where we do have 4 really distinct seasons.