We're currently on track to have THE latest appearance of snow in New York since they started keeping records. December was mostly above average temperatures (see chart above) and January has so far been above normal as well. The result has been very few days below the freezing point this winter and NO SNOW.

Julianne Warren, 40, a conservation biologist visiting New York from Lexington, Va., is concerned. She said she heard a white-throated sparrow in Central Park and saw an azalea blooming.

“Things seem a little —” she said, and then wiggled her outstretched right hand as if it were an airplane in turbulence. “It may mean the flowers don’t bloom at the right time and birds may not know to migrate at the right time.”

There are indeed reports all over the city of strange bloomings happening around the city: daffodils growing in Morningside Park , something that looks like a cherry tree in Riverside Park. Streetsblog calls it like it is: New York is the New Baltimore.

And it's not just NYC. Most of New England, the Midwest and Europe have significantly less snow pack than normal at this time.

The warmth and lack of snow are also affecting all of Europe. The famed Russian winter that stopped the armies of Hitler and Napoleon has failed to show up this year. Virtually all of Europe has seen the warmest and least snowy December on record, to go with their warmest fall on record. Temperatures in Moscow this December have hit 47 F, a full 87 degrees above the lowest readings recorded last winter. The brown bears at the Moscow zoo have refused to hibernate for the first time ever, thanks to the record warmth.

From local to global, December 2006 to March 2007 looks like it could be the year that winter never came. Stay tuned.