US

White Christmas Unlikely Considering Unusually Mild Weather Thus Far in Winter 2011-2012

Will There Be a White Christmas This Year?

(The Blaze/AP) Dreams of a white Christmas are hanging by a thread in the North, where unusually mild weather has left the ground bare in many places – a welcome reprieve for people who don’t like shoveling, but a lump of coal in the stockings of outdoor sports buffs who miss their winter wonderland.

From New England to the Dakotas and even parts of the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest, snowfall has been well below normal through the fall and early winter with cold air bottled up over Canada. Golf courses were open this week in Minneapolis, which a year ago was digging out from a storm that dumped more than 17 inches of snow and collapsed the Metrodome roof. Many downhill ski resorts are making snow to compensate for nature’s stinginess.

“It’s been an amazingly slow start to the winter for everybody,” said Mike Boguth, a National Weather Service forecaster in Gaylord, Mich., a resort town that has had only about 2 inches of natural snow this year.

La Nina, the cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that affects weather worldwide, has nudged the jet stream farther north. Air pressure over the northern Atlantic has steered storm systems away from the East Coast.

The trends have resulted in the least snow New England has seen in November and December since the late 1990s, said Eric Evenson, a weather service meteorologist in Burlington, Vt. Snow totals across the region are 4 to 14 inches below normal, he said.

Williston, N.D., where more than 5 inches would have accumulated by now in a typical December, has gotten nothing. A couple of inches fell farther south in Bismarck but melted. Montana’s mountain snowpack is about 30 percent below average. Ski resorts in Washington state have gotten little snow since Thanksgiving.

Even snowy Michigan is feeling the pinch. Parts of the state regularly get more than 100 inches a year as clouds suck up moisture from the Great Lakes and deposit it over land. It’s been sparse this year, although light snow fell Friday and forecasters said sections of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota might get the 1 inch required to qualify as a white Christmas.

Light flurries and temperatures around 30 degrees are expected Christmas Day in Green Bay, Wis., where the Packers will host the Chicago Bears. That’s downright balmy for Lambeau Field, the notorious “frozen tundra” that has hosted a fair share of NFL games in bitter cold and pelting snow.

A storm system moving up from the Gulf coast may sprinkle up to 3 inches of snow in sections of the Northeast by Christmas, but it probably won’t last long, Evenson said.

Along with painting the landscape in dreary shades of brown and gray instead of the usual white, the abnormally mild winter has affected the economy.

Local governments have spent less on plowing and salting roads. Gogebic County, in the snow belt of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is about $100,000 better off than at this time a year ago, although road commission manager Darren Pionk said the savings might be short-lived.

“One or two bad months, and it can disappear pretty quickly,” he said.

Some businesses geared toward the winter are having a hard time. Mike Pobuda of Empire, Mich., keeps busy plowing residential and commercial driveways in a typical winter. These days, the phone isn’t ringing. He’s working at a convenience store to help pay the bills.

“It was already tight out there and now it’s tighter,” Pobuda said.

In Sioux Falls, S.D., hardware store owner Dallas Vanden Bos said it’s taken all season to sell as many bags of snow and ice melting materials as customers usually buy in one day.

The outdoor recreation industry is making the best of things. Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vt., installed about 40 high-efficiency snowmaking machines this year and immediately put them to work making 18 of the property’s 111 trails suitable for skiing and snowboarding, president and majority owner Win Smith said.

But smaller operations that can’t afford snowmaking may suffer if the snow shortage lasts much longer, said Lisa Marshall, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

“It could be make-or-break for them,” she said.

Not everyone regrets that snow has been mostly a no-show, especially people who hate driving on slick roads and shoveling walks and driveways.

In Minneapolis, more than 100 people braved borderline freezing temperatures this week for a rare opportunity to play golf in December. Mike Schneider, a 70-year-old retiree, carried a handful of tees he had whittled to needle-sharp points so they would penetrate the frosty turf at Parkview Golf Club.

A fellow golfer, Jim Jorgensen, said there were advantages to playing in the cold. For one thing, freezing eliminates water hazards.

“It just skips across,” Jorgensen said. “You don’t have to worry about losing the ball.”

Comments (21)

  • love the kids
    Posted on December 26, 2011 at 1:32pm

    If you are an environmentalist who believes that man is creating global warming, then this should piss you right off. Because of all of the rules that you have forced upon United States companies, you have caused US business to go out of business or forced business to operate overseas. Well, they need electricity for all those manufacturing plants, and it come from coal plants that operate in China without ANY pollution controls. That’s why they had to shut down coal plants in Bejing for 2 weeks prior to the olympics, so the smog clouds could dissipate.
    Your environmental rules are EXCELLERATING exactly what you are trying to prevent.
    What’s the term, cut off your nose to spite your face.

    Report Post »  
  • Bronco II
    Posted on December 26, 2011 at 6:32am

    Well maybe GOD is just messing with the ENVIORMENTALIST to show them he is in control of everything including the weather.I’m just saying he does have a sense of humor he has to look at us and what we do sometimes but he loves us all anyway.

    Report Post » Bronco II  
  • flatbroke
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 9:51pm

    OK , am i the only one who remembers last years snowmagaden, the 12 inches in MO was enough for me, i dont miss it, i am dreaming of a normaly mild winter 2-4 inches of snow per storm and 1or 2 snow storms in 1 year, and the snow melts the next day. i hate snowy winters.

    Report Post » flatbroke  
  • Phyliss
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 12:53pm

    What is so unusual about no snow at Christmas? Here in NY most of the time we have rain. The serious stuff comes Jan. Feb and March.

    Report Post » Phyliss  
  • boats48
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 10:18am

    It snowed last night, albeit a dusting, but snow none the less! We got our big snow at Halloween.
    Merry Christmas everyone

    Report Post » boats48  
  • ZomBrad
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 7:51am

    I hate snow anyways……it IS a Merry Christmas!

    Report Post »  
  • TelepromoterNChief
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 2:13am

    Wonder if Michelle will let Barry around the kids when the cameras are not around on Christmas morning….

    Report Post »  
  • TRONINTHEMORNING
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 1:24am

    30 degrees; 8-12 inches of snow the last 2 days and a Merry Christmas from Colorado Springs, CO!!

    We are blessed! Happy birthday to Jesus Christ!

    Report Post »  
  • TelepromoterNChief
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 1:21am

    Merry CHRiSTmas non-believers.

    Report Post »  
  • whatthecrazy
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 12:29am

    I have only one thing to say, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR and i dont care who you are oopsie that was two things .

    Report Post »  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 12:28am

    If global warming were to be true; we could grow bananas in Alaska and Canada. Look at all of that farmland, we call tundra, that is fallow because it is FROZEN!

    Report Post » Stoic one  
  • Av8tor056
    Posted on December 25, 2011 at 12:16am

    25F and 10 inches of snow. SE New Mexico. Al Gore KMA!

    Report Post » Av8tor056  
  • CatB
    Posted on December 24, 2011 at 11:56pm

    Yes .. from year to year the weather changes .. imagine that .. last winter we were freezing in Florida . this year 80′s …

    I remember the Christmas my son got his first bike .. it was so nice and warm that he and the boy next door (who got one also) were able to go bike riding .. and that was Michigan.

    Merry Christmas to all!

    Report Post »  
  • seeker9
    Posted on December 24, 2011 at 11:39pm

    Ojmjakon
    -62 °F
    Verhojansk
    -59 °F
    Kjusjur
    -56 °F
    Njurba
    -56 °F
    Just a little global temp ckeck.

    Report Post » seeker9  
  • LeadNotFollow
    Posted on December 24, 2011 at 11:26pm

    Who needs snow, to have a merry Christmas.
    Just snuggling up to my pet, that came from the local animal shelter, is more than enough for me.
    There are plenty of great pets at your local animal shelter, that could sure use your hugs.
    God bless all the pets.
    They bring us so much unconditional love, and joy.
    MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL.

    Report Post »  
  • V-MAN MACE
    Posted on December 24, 2011 at 11:18pm

    Stop spraying aluminum dioxide and barium salts into our atmosphere in chemtrails, and maybe we could get some normal weather.

    Report Post » V-MAN MACE  
  • 13th Generation American
    Posted on December 24, 2011 at 10:55pm

    Great, here come all the anti science climate change denying kooks……

    Report Post » 13th Generation American  
    • 4X4in
      Posted on December 24, 2011 at 11:09pm

      Can you prove it?

      Report Post »  
    • V-MAN MACE
      Posted on December 24, 2011 at 11:47pm

      I’m pro-science, the global warming hoax is anti-science and anti-common sense.

      CO2 sinks to the ground because its lighter than air and it doesn’t retain any heat, meaning that it can’t create an impenetrable blanket to trap heat, nor does it hold heat because infrared radiation is CONSTANTLY radiated into space. Water vapor is the main greenhouse gas, and it retains infrared radiation (heat) MUCH longer (and better) than CO2.

      All CO2 does is cause plants to get bigger because they can withstand higher temperatures due to increased effectiveness of photosynthesis. Higher CO2 means plants respirate and photosythesize better, meaning higher oxygen (and water vapor) and MORE FOOD, which is GOOD for humans and animals.

      Now of course, too much CO2 means everyone suffocates (even plants die) because it is poisonous to most plants over 2000PPM.

      We have normal levels of CO2 right now, 330- 400 PPM. Marijuana can withstand up to 2000PPM of CO2 and the yield doubles.

      Report Post » V-MAN MACE  

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