Missing the Snow? Here's A Reminder of Just How Much You Had Last Year

Some Northesterners are starting to question whether this year’s white Christmas is merely a pipe dream, and snow-reliant business owners are crossing their fingers in hopes that this warm weather won’t lead to a disastrous winter for them.

In places like Maine and Vermont, ski mountains and outdoor sports businesses are waiting, anxiously, for Mother Nature to do her part.

Buffalo, New York, a place slammed by a multi-day lake-effect snowstorm the week before Thanksgiving, has broken a record for the latest the city had seen measurable snow. Previously, the record was set on Dec. 3, 1899. As of Tuesday, it had beaten the century-old record by five days.

Burlington, Vermont, could follow. Its current record for having no more than an inch of snow is Dec. 21, set in 1948, said Eric Evenson, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Burlington had received two-tenths of an inch as of Tuesday, well shy of the normal snow to date of 8.7 inches, Evenson said.

Vermont's trails open next week, and they are brown and bare. Often, the snow isn't deep enough for snowmobilers until after Christmas, but the warm trend threatens that.

David Johnson, who works in financial services in Boston, said he expected this winter would not match the record 110.6 inches the city got last winter.

"I have no grounding for that, it's just a feeling," Johnson said.

Charles Blakeman, a 25-year-old college student and product promoter, was more fatalistic.

"There's a lack of snow so far, which just means that we're going to get hit harder later on," he said as he waited for a train at Boston's South Station. He said he is an avid snowboarder, so he doesn't mind some snow "as long as it stays in Vermont and New Hampshire."