Sunny and 77 degrees F here right now. Spring seems to have arrived in force over the last week.
pbfoot, I grew up in Buffalo, and I remember other years when the ice bridge never formed, especially since they started installing the ice boom upriver to keep large chunks of ice from going over the falls and accelerating the erosion.
I was at the Falls twice the past fall / winter, once at Thanksgiving and once at Christmas-time, it was plenty cold both times, but not much snow. My parents in Buffalo got nearly a foot just last week, though.
Here in Raleigh it was also a mild winter, no measurable snowfall at all. We normally get at least one storm of a couple inches per year.