The warm weather is making for empty slopes at some ski resorts in our area.
Even with snow-covered slopes at Sno Mountain in Scranton, the mild weather seemed to have skiers thinking spring instead of winter.
"It`s good for people who don`t like snow, but people like us who want snow, it`s not very good," said Mike Gallis of Dallas.
Mike Gallis and his friends were some of the few who did strap on their skis and snowboards on Wednesday. They pretty much had the mountain all to themselves.
"I think it`s affecting everyone. There`s not much you can do about the weather," said Nancy Kaminski with Sno Mountain. "The conditions are fairly good. Granted it`s not like having the natural snow, but again, you just do the best that you can with what you have."
Ski resorts rely on colder weather and with above average temperatures so far this winter, officials with Sno Mountain said business is down 25-30 percent compared to last season.
"It hasn`t been as good as last year. Last year there were a lot more snow storms. Now there`s barely any snow, so it`s not the best," said Kyle Zumchak of Dallas.
"The percentages are down. Even on Martin Luther King holiday they were down a little bit, relatively speaking, but we`re just keeping doing what we`ve been doing, hoping that the weather is going to change a little bit and it will get at least cold enough," added Kaminski.
With temperatures in the 50s, some skiers said you can still enjoy runs down the slopes without having to bundle up.
"It`s just weird. It feels like summer. You can go down in a t-shirt. It`s pretty nice," said Chris Schmid of Dallas. "If it`s warm and as long as the slope`s nice, why not?"
Despite the warm weather, Sno Mountain has been able to make at least 18 inches of base snow and has 24 trails open.
Cold weather permitting, officials hope to make snow Thursday night.
The resort also has promotions, including lower lift ticket prices, to help the community and officials hope those promotions will also help combat the warm weather slow down.