Sub-zero temperatures and snow have finally arrived in Toronto, not before an astoundingly warm start to winter that has been raising alarm bells — especially as we've just shattered yet another weather record.

Experts and residents alike have been expressing grave concern about how unusually mild our most frigid time of year has been thus far.

It also came on the heels of an unnaturally hot autumn that delayed the changing of the leaves and included the longest stretch of weather over 18 C that the city had experienced in more than 100 years.

Toronto just smashed another weather record and the trend is concerning😳 https://t.co/a7q6nftOVG #Toronto #Ontario #TorontoWeather #GlobalWarming

— blogTO (@blogTO) January 4, 2024

We've shattered multiple weather records since then, such as the highest temperatures ever recorded for specific December dates, the latest ever arrival of the winter chill and the sheer number of rainy and foggy days thanks to nearly tropical conditions that pushed through to the end of the year.

Now, as we kick off January, it appears that the holiday season set the record for having the highest minimum temperature of any December in the last 183 years, with the coldest day measuring only -4.4 C.

This is the warmest low in December since records began in the city, and the first-ever time thermometers have stayed above - 5 C for the entire month. 

🥇For the 1st time in recorded history, Toronto stayed above -5°C during an entire December (December 2023).
byu/YOW-Weather-Records intoronto

Those coming to terms with the news on social media today are trying their best not to panic, with many joking that "everything is fine" and that "there's nothing to see here," as some leaders would like us to believe.

"I extremely don't understand how literally everyone doesn't have constant existential climate dread. I'm only in my early 30s and even I remember how different the weather was," one person said in a popular Reddit thread on the topic Monday.

"My 14 year old was reminiscing about how he used to be able to depend on white Christmases the other day," a second added, to which another replied that "this year was the first green Christmas in Sudbury for at least 50 years."

I am jealous of the snow

It's just been rain, rain and more rain here in what has been a disturbingly warm winter for Toronto

— Dianna Gunn (@DiannaLGunn) January 4, 2024

Indeed, even the more northerly parts of the province have been experiencing a drastic snow drought, with people as far north as Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and, yes, Sudbury, complaining that there was none of the white stuff over the holidays.

The warm trend also persisted nationwide in December, with some noting that as enjoyable as the more temperate conditions were, the unseasonable dearth of snow and proper cold has been "not good."

December 2023 was extremely warm in Canada. All reference stations were above average, with most of the country at least 3 degrees above.
Warmest December on record for many, mostly in the Prairies and Nunavut. In Alert, NU, December was warmer than November. #wxtwitter pic.twitter.com/wdMtDan9jl

— Patrick Duplessis (@Pat_wx) January 1, 2024

It's meant very spotty ice skating, skiing, snowmobiling and ice fishing, as well as fears that festivals like Winterlude in Ottawa will never be the same, as it has been too warm for Rideau Canal to freeze for skating — something that also happened last year for the first time in history.

We'll have to see if the Texas low slated to bring a big snowstorm to Southern Ontario in the coming days manages to buck the trend.