/Let it snow (please)

Let it snow (please)

By Chad Ingram

As I write this it's minus 11 degrees outside but it wasn't so a couple of days ago.

A couple of days ago it was plus eight.

This winter if you can call it that has been spastic. Must be a confusing time for migratory birds.
After a green Christmas Old Man Winter made his first real appearance dumping a pile of snow on the county Dec. 29.
Some of that snow has since departed much of it converted to watery slush during the weekend with temperatures heading back toward the double digits.
Some climatologists suggest that this is going to be the new normal which for me personally is fine.
Not a skier nor snowboarder nor snowmobiler I have little use for snow and much less use for the cold.
I know that I’m certainly not alone that there are plenty of other Haliburtonians who prefer patios to powder.

However the county requires winter – a traditional cold snow-covered winter – for its economic livelihood.

There are of course the businesses and organizations that benefit directly from the snow.
This winter is no doubt a challenging one for Sir Sam’s where the Christmas school break typically accounts for up to a third of the ski hill’s annual revenues.
There’s the Haliburton County Snowmobile Association which sells trail permits to users proceeds going to the grooming and maintenance of the trails themselves.
There are the businesses that provide snow removal and rent ice huts and ones that repair snowmobiles.
But the necessity of winter and the implications of having a winter that is not very wintery run much deeper than that.
A non-wintery winter has ramifications for many businesses in the community.
Not enough snow means not enough snowmobilers/skiers/snowshoers means not enough patrons at local restaurants or enough heads in beds with local accommodators.

I was talking to the guy at the gas station last week about the weather and the first thing out of his mouth was “bad for business.”
So even if you’re like me a sucker for summer pray to the snow gods or do a snow dance.
The county needs it to snow.