Got spring fever yet? Thursday morning’s T-shirt weather is just the latest evidence of a winter that has let us off easy.
The winter of 2015-16 will almost certainly go down as one of the five warmest on record in Boston, and it could even wind up as one of the top three, according to a review of data from the National Weather Service.
The average daily temperature in Boston so far this winter — through Tuesday — was 37.1 degrees.
Temperatures are expected to climb toward 60 Thursday. Combine that with the forecasts for the next few days and the average daily temperature for the season would end up at 37.3 degrees.
That would put this meteorological winter (which forecasters define as December, January, and February) as the second warmest since recordkeeping began with the winter of 1872-73.
The warmest on record was 2001-02, when average temperatures averaged 37.9 degrees.
It’s unlikely that temperatures during the final days of February will drop low enough to drag this winter out of the top five. The fifth warmest is a three-way tie at 35.4 degrees.
This winter has marked a huge bounce back from a year ago, when Boston saw average wintertime temperatures of 28. The historical average is 30.7 degrees.
Another boon — or disappointment, if you like snow days — has been the lack of snow. This winter will also likely finish with below-average snowfall.
A total of 25.4 inches had fallen in Boston as of Tuesday, and there is no snow forecast through the end of the month.
Much of the relatively warm and snow-free conditions this winter — which featured the warmest December on record in Boston — has been attributed to a powerful El Niño, an area of unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that can dictate weather patterns across large swaths of the planet.
In the months leading up to the start of winter, and throughout the season, meteorologists said that the strong El Niño would be a dominant factor, increasing the chance for above average temperatures. They also predicted it would cause our region to ultimately wind up with average to below-average snowfall by winter’s end.
Forecasters have also noted that the strong El Niño made their jobs a bit easier, as they tend to have more confidence predicting the impact of various climate patterns — including El Niño — the stronger they are.
Matt Rocheleau can be reached at matthew.rocheleau@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrochele