United States | News & Politics

In my Connecticut hometown, the average winter temperature used to be slightly below freezing. Now, it’s slightly above. How many joyful days filled with snowball fights and sledding would I have instead spent suffering in a classroom, gazing out the window at the rain, imagining the world just a little colder?

Ditto for my Vermont hometown. All winter = bitter cold and lots of snow - sometimes feet deep, but definitely enough for sledding and skiing most of the season. Dad was happy to have that snowblower and it got a lot of use. Now all I ever hear about from back east is all the flooding and resulting destruction. This article sheds some light on some of the reasons for all that. Rural VT and NH, easily reached from BOS/NY and southern New England, have economies that are heavily dependent on tourism, and especially winter tourism in the form of skiers. Less and/or crappier (wet) snow is really going to cause pain.

The resort also sells as many preseason passes as it can, which can cushion the financial blow of a ski season without much snow.

Sure you can fool the Flatlanders into taking such gambles, maybe for a season or two, but it won't be long before they're tired of taking the snow risk (quantity, quality) on themselves (rather than the resorts taking it) and choosing to stay entertained in some other way.