Much of America asks: Where did winter go? Spring starts early as US winter was warmest on record

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

Across much of America and especially in the normally chilly north, the country went through the winter months without, well, winter. In parka strongholds Burlington, Vermont, and Portland, Maine, the thermometer never plunged below zero. The state of Minnesota called the last three months “the lost winter,” warmer than the infamous “year without a winter” in 1877-1878. Michigan, where mosquitos were biting in February, offered disaster loans to businesses hit by a lack of snow. The Great Lakes set records for low winter ice, with Erie and Ontario “essentially ice-free.” Federal meteorologists on Friday have made it official: It’s the warmest U.S. winter on record by far.