A freezing rain warning in effect for the Ottawa region is expected to strike Tuesday night. Environment Canada reports it will be on and off until Wednesday morning.

It is the latest in several winter weather events without snow, and some are starting to call it the winter that wasn't.

"It didn't start snowing until Christmas, so we've only had a month of snow but we've had a lot of freezing rain," said one skater on the canal.

On average Ottawa would see about 122 cm of snow by this time of year. So far this winter the city has seen half the amount.

"That very cold air has stayed up in the high latitudes -- up in Nunavut and the North Pole -- and hasn't really made an intrusion into the lower latitudes," said Environment Canada spokesperson Geoff Coulson.

The average high for February 1st is -6 C. The forecast for Wednesday is 1 C.

Coulson said winters are definitely getting milder, but more research is needed to pinpoint the reason. He says winters in the city of Ottawa are changing. The snowy deep freeze residents are used to may be a thing of the past.

"We haven't really seen the same amounts in the last couple of decades," he said.

Winterlude starts this weekend and organizers are hoping it will get cold enough to keep the Rideau Canal Skateway open. In any case, they say they are prepared for unseasonable warmth.

"In Jacques Cartier Park the slides have been covered with a thick covering of ice so they'll be fine," said Denise Leblanc with the National Capital Commission. "The snow carvings will be covered with tarps and in Confederation Park the ice carvings are already being tarped."

While weather is an unpredictable force of nature, Coulson said don't expect temperatures to take a complete about-face.

"The trend that we've seen in November, December, January is expected to continue through the month of February."

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Catherine Lathem