Unlike in past years, Toronto has been snow-free this November. (Peter McCluskey/CBC)

Toronto is set to record its first snow-free November since the weather office started keeping records in 1937, but one expert suggests this is no guarantee of a mild winter to come.

With temperatures expected to stay between 6 C and 8 C through the first three days of the week, it's unlikely any snow will fall in the city before Thursday at the earliest.

"Not once has there ever been a November without at least a trace of snow. So it's truly remarkable," said Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips. "There's been snow in some places outside the Toronto area, Hamilton, Aurora, place like this, but downtown, at the airport, in the city of Toronto there hasn't been a flake of snow."

The national weather service said the first flakes may hit the ground on Friday — but even then there's only a 60 per cent chance of flurries.

The longer the snow stays away, the better for the city's bottom line which saves millions of dollars when it doesn't have to plow and salt the streets and expressways.

But the November savings may not amount to too much according to Peter Noehammer, Toronto's director of transportation services.

The city's annual budget for snow removal is $80 million. But the budget year runs from January to December, so most of the money is gone.

"We have virtually spent most of that budget from the early storms we had in 2009. In January and February, you'll recall, we had some pretty major storms back then, and the cold temperatures," he said,

But Torontonians shouldn't get too smug, Phillips warns, as winter has a way of getting even.

"One of the last times we had only a trace of snow in October-November — so virtually snow-free — and virtually no snow in December, was 1998. In January of 1999 we had to call out the army because we got a year's worth of snow," he said.