ST. PAUL, Minn. - The warm, brown winter that has disappointed snow lovers in much of the U.S. has put more green in the pockets of state and local governments that had their budgets busted last year by the high cost of plowing and running roaring furnaces.

Cities that normally spend millions on road salt, sand and snowplows are happily saving the money for other purposes. Some are even taking advantage of the mild weather to carry on with outdoor projects that would usually have to wait until spring.

"There's a sigh of relief," said Chris Sagsveen, who manages road and bridge operations in Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous because it includes Minneapolis.

In 2011, his department spent its entire snow-removal budget for the year by the end of March. He dreaded the potential for another fearsome winter. But the county barely spent a penny in the final months of 2011 and so far this year hasn't tapped its snow budget once.

For virtually the entire season, cold air has been bottled up over Canada. La Nina, the cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that affects weather worldwide, has nudged the jet stream farther north. And air pressure over the northern Atlantic has steered storm systems away from the East Coast.

In Minnesota and North Dakota, crews have parked their snowplows and are patching roads and highways instead. Chicago spent just $500,000 on plowing in December, down from $6 million a year earlier. In Buffalo, N.Y., public works overtime is down by 25 percent, and the city has saved more than $300,000 on salt.

Syracuse, N.Y., one of New York's snowiest cities, has had 13 inches this winter compared to an unusually heavy 77 by this time last year. Public Works Commissioner Pete O'Connor said he has saved $500,000 in salt, overtime and fuel.

"This is Mother Nature's way and a lot of praying on my part," O'Connor said. Instead of plowing, his crews are out collecting discarded Christmas trees, which in some years don't emerge from snow banks until spring.

In St. Paul, where a few meager snowfalls have melted within days, the temperature hit a record 52 on Tuesday - a reading more appropriate for April.

The story is the same across most of the country. Marathon County, Wis., spent half as much to plow snow last month as the $600,000 it forked out in December 2010. North Dakota's snow-removal costs fell by nearly half, to $1.6 million through November. And overtime at one state shop in Bismarck plunged from almost 6,000 hours last winter to almost nothing.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - When you're trying to clear nearly 15 feet of snow, a regular shovel just isn't going to cut it.

As residents in the fishing town of Cordova and 57 Alaska National Guard members tried to dig out, they learned that they didn't have the right tool for the job.

There were plenty of regular shovels around. But what they needed was a larger version with a scoop that can push a cubic foot of snow or better at a time.

"That's what's missing in Alaska," city spokesman Tim Joyce said.

Not anymore.

"We will be shipping 72 shovels to Alaska by plane tomorrow to help," said Genevieve Gagne, product manager at the shovel's maker, Quebec, Canada-based Garant.

The new shovels cost about $50 each, and the city is paying for them with its emergency funds.

The Yukon ergo sleigh shovels, with a 26-inch scoop, have a huge advantage over regular shovels. "Trying to lift snow all day with those is pretty backbreaking," Joyce said.

"We have the National Guard right now using the standard shovel, and they're getting pretty trashed everyday - not the shovels but the Guardsmen themselves," he said.

Since Nov. 1, storms have dropped 176 inches of snow and more than 44 inches of rain on the town, about 150 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Temperatures warmed overnight, and residents awoke to standing water because of stopped-up drains. The rain also made the existing snow heavier.

The warmer temperatures - about 35 degrees midday Wednesday - brought another hazard to the Prince William Sound community of 2,200 people: avalanche danger.

There's one road leading out, and it was closed though it could be opened for emergency vehicles.

The city also is warning people not to stand under the eaves of their houses to clear snow off the roof for fear the snow will come down on them.

"There's a real high potential that if it does slide, they'd be buried," he said.

So far, four commercial buildings and two homes have been damaged from snow accumulation on roofs. A 24-unit apartment complex also had to be evacuated.

The short-term forecast doesn't hold any good news. There's more snow on the way, another 5-10 inches of it.