Warm winters like this happen. In the early 80's we had a few wimp winters. No snow til February, very little safe ice, 1/2 the HCSA trails were closed. A Minden dogsled derby, or 2, that trucked snow in from Quebec. 65F on XMas 83 in the Sault,..... I also remember freak snowstorms in May. Most recent was 2 years back in Orillia.
Extremes happen, what is different is the severity and extended time frames.