Tuesday morning's flurries aside, Toronto has seen an exceptionally slow start to the chilliest time of the year, with unseasonably balmy temperatures actually delaying our fall colours and breaking long-standing weather records.

With the first official day of winter approaching on Thursday, the city has just crushed yet another record, again for our unusually warm conditions — which, though welcomed, could be considered cause for concern.

As clocked by the oldest weather station in the country, Toronto's daily maximum temperature for last Friday, December 15 was the highest it's ever been since records began all the way back in 1840.

Thermometers were recording a spring-like 13.2 C, which is an admittedly shocking figure for just 10 days before Christmas. It's been more than a decade since the city saw a temperature nearly as high on the same day (13.1 C in 2011), and yes, at least a whopping 183 years since we've experienced anything warmer on the date, if ever.

🥇With a ~2pm high of 13.2°C, yesterday was Toronto's warmest Dec 15th since records began in 1840.
byu/YOW-Weather-Records intoronto

While some residents have been happy to get out and enjoy an extended patio season and more comfortable temperatures than expected lately, others are wary, noting on socials that Friday is just "another record set on an increasingly unlivable planet."

The projected lack the white stuff over the holidays, too, is worrying, and not just because it's a bit of a downer when you're trying to get into the spirit of the season.

Along with concerns about how a lack of wintry precipitation could impact the water table and next year's climate, there is also the fact that the typical "white Christmas" of yore is becoming increasingly rare around the globe amid a climate crisis.

Most of the U.S., the U.K., Europe, and places like Montreal — traditionally snowy this time of year — are not expecting their usual December blizzards, challenging the historic imagery of the season as temperatures rise.

In the Maritimes, as just one example, the likelihood of a white Christmas has now plummeted 32 per cent from the 1960s-1980s when it was the norm.

With a rollercoaster of a winter forecast on deck for the coming months, we'll have to wait to see what other curveballs (and records) Mother Nature sends us.