Snow still a no show in balmy N.Y.

NEW YORK — No children screeching on toboggans. No thwack against a friend's head. No melting on tongues. No snow. November. December, too.

For the last two months, no snow has fallen on Central Park, and it probably won't fall anytime soon, forecasters say. Indeed, not since April 8 has there been even a flurry.

The National Weather Service said that last month appeared to be the first December without a snowflake here since 1877, when Rutherford B. Hayes was president.

Moreover, New York City is not alone. Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, Vienna and Stockholm report little or no snow this season.

It has been so warm in Yaroslavl, a city about 150 miles northeast of Moscow, that Masha the bear, a resident of the city zoo, woke up last month from hibernation after only a week.

In Central Park on Saturday, where children were gliding along on roller skates and rumbling around on three-wheelers, Rob Flanagan, 35, a general contractor from Hoboken, N.J., was peeved.

"Global warming!" he said. "Al might be right!" Flanagan was referring to Al Gore, the former vice president and crusader against greenhouse gases. The mild weather stinks, he said. "I like the snow!"

Stuart Welburn, a lawyer who lives on the Upper West Side, disagreed on behalf of his 9-month-old son, Owen, whom he was carrying on his shoulder.

"This guy is happier without the biting cold," Welburn said, adding that Owen's mother, Melissa, was the same way.

On the other hand, Welburn and his older son, Will, 2 1/2, love the snow and tobogganing. "We play in the snow right there, on that mound in particular," Welburn said, motioning toward a small hill just off the West 72nd Street entrance to Central Park. "This whole area is well-populated with sleds in the winter."

Jason Krantz, 38, another lawyer who lives on the Upper West Side, said he didn't miss the snow. His two toddlers and a nephew were busy clambering up a big boulder, yelling "123!" and then jumping down into Krantz's outstretched arms.

"I enjoy the snow when it's here," Krantz said as he watched for flying children. "But I'm just as happy when there's no snow here as well, because you don't have to cover the kids in scarves and gloves and mittens."