Over the past three months temperatures have been 2.9 degrees Celsius higher than the seasonal norm, peaking at 3.3 degrees above average in October, according to Michel Schneider, an engineer at Meteo France.

The season has been exceptionally mild across the whole of western Europe, from Scandinavia to Germany and Switzerland -- where ornithologists say the balmy weather has led many birds to delay their winter migration south.

In the French Alps and Pyrenees, ski station operators preparing to launch the winter season have been waiting anxiously for the first signs of snow, with the mild weather expected to continue into December.

But for Serge Planton of Meteo France, it is too soon to attribute the phenomenon directly to global warming.

"This fits with what one would expect (as a consequence of global warming) but it is not sufficient to draw any conclusions," he said, explaining that a weather pattern had to span several decades to be viewed as significant.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.