It's February 7, and here in WNY, we've had no winter. It's like we're living 200 or so miles south or 500 miles east along the coast. It's been the 2nd warmest winter ever recorded in Buffalo (
Warm Winter).
Here in the Southern Tier where we normally measure snow cover in feet not inches by this time of year, we don't have any snow on the ground except on the forested north facing slopes of hills. The traditional "ice castle" at the Winter Carnival in Mayville will not be happening this year because Chautauqua Lake isn't frozen. Snowmobile tourism is a big deal in this county as we have hundreds of miles of groomed trails that attract snowmobilers from all over the East and Midwest, but there has probably only been about 2 weeks when there was enough snow on the ground to even get the sleds out.
With Lake Erie at 36 degrees and unlikely to freeze this year, we'll remain vulnerable to lake effect snow storms through March. The thing is, since we haven't gotten any arctic blasts yet, will we get any at all? Apparently, the frigid air masses from northern Canada that usually give us cold and snow from November through March either aren't developing or aren't sinking far enough south to reach us.
Where ever winter is, it ain't here.