Europeans Wonder: Snow, Where’d You Go?

Bears in Slovakia are awakening early from hibernation. So are barmaids in Bavaria, unseasonably busy in outdoor beer gardens. Bushes are blooming in Austria, and skiers at snowless Bosnian resorts are chilling out in hotel pools.

Forgoing a white Christmas was one thing, but the utter absence of snow for weeks on end from the Baltics to the Balkans has many Europeans pining for what seems – so far, anyway – like The Winter That Wasn’t.