It's a cliche, but Buffalo may indeed be the Miami of the North.

Don't laugh, but if you do, consider the following not-so-cold hard facts before you

chuckle too loudly:

Last month was the warmest April in 89 years and the second-warmest in 140 years of

record keeping.

The snowfall season this winter — three months, not the normal five —

was the shortest ever.

The 84-degree high on April 3 was not only a record for that particular date but the

warmest ever so early in the year.

The past two months combined for the warmest March and April in 65 years and the

fourth-warmest March and April ever recorded.

"This has been an extraordinary spring," said meteorologist Steve McLaughlin of the

National Weather Service office in Cheektowaga.

McLaughlin should know. He's the guy who, realizing something special was in the works, dug

through the record books and compiled a laundry list of evidence.

Who knew, for example, that there was no measurable snowfall in November, March or April?

Or that the snowfall season lasted only three months, starting Dec. 1 and ending Feb. 28?

"That's the shortest in history," McLaughlin said.

And that's not the only first he uncovered.

McLaughlin also discovered that barely a trace of snow fell in March and April, making it

the lowest total ever for a two-month period that usually is good for one season-ending blast

each year.

On top of that, 45 of the 61 days in March and April were warmer than normal, sometimes

dramatically so.

"Bottom line," said McLaughlin, "we lucked out."

Luck? Say it ain't so, Mr. Meteorologist.

Sadly, it is, and unfortunately there's no guarantee at all that next year will be anything

like this year.

He said the list of firsts can be attributed to two things.

The lack of a single blockbuster snowstorm, although ski resorts to the south fared

well throughout the winter.

Second, a series of weather patterns that spared Western New York, while much of the

Northeast got pummeled with terrible cold and snow.

"I don't recall anything like it in my time," Shelly Schenck said of the record warm

weather across the region.

Schenck, co-chairwoman of the 55-year-old Clymer Tulip Festival in Chautauqua County, may

be the only person in Western New York who wishes it wasn't so warm.

She looks at the town's tulip displays, many of them already in full bloom, and knows full

well that the unusually nice weather and early growing season it spawned is at the root of all

her worries.

The May 14 festival, after all, is still 10 days away.

"I think they'll be fine," she said of the tulips on display at two of the town's four

Dutch windmills, "as long as it doesn't rain too hard."

And even if it does, Schenck has an ace up her sleeve.

"There are always," she said, "mid to late bloomers."