Today is the first day of November and still no snow to be found in southern Manitoba.

David Phillips with Environment Canada says that is unusual. Phillips says usually by now, people have put away their lawn furniture, installed their winter tires and have experienced already a few days of snow. Yet this year, he says the snow has been missing in action. Phillips says if you look back at the last fifty years in the Steinbach area, only about ten of those years did no snow fall before Halloween.

According to Phillips, the average temperature in October was seven degrees, which is two degrees warmer than normal. And so far, not one "all freeze day," which is the term given to a day when the temperature does not climb above the freezing mark for the entire day.

"We can already say the cold season has begun rather slowly and of course I don't think anybody dislikes that," suggests Phillips.

The average high for this time of year is 5 degrees, while the average low is about -4. Phillips says we will kick start November with highs this week ranging from 10 to 13 degrees.

"It looks like it's going to be both dry and sunny and unseasonably mild for this time of the year," he says.

Phillips explains Canada can be divided into two parts. In western Canada, the air right now is cooler, feeling more like winter. In Manitoba, especially the eastern part of the province, it is milder, influenced by southerly air that is blanketing parts of eastern North America.

According to Phillips, the start of November is expected to be milder than normal. In fact, he says their models show the first part of winter, all the way to January should be milder than normal across the prairies. And while he says this winter probably won't be as balmy as last winter, he doesn't expect it will create the hardship that many people are dreading.

"We think that this winter will be a little soft, a little slow to begin," he forecasts. "There will be some winter for people who like it but it doesn't necessarily mean for a long winter."