By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Mild weather may make living in Central New York easier for residents.
However, for businesses that rely on the white stuff for their livelihood, less snow means less income.
Snowfall has remained at record low levels for the past few years.
According to Extremeweatherwatch.com, Oswego experienced 38.7” of snow in the 2023-24 winter season; 47” in 2022-23; 72.7” in 2021-22; 59.2” in 2020-21 and 52.2” in 2019-20.
Compare those numbers with previous years: 131.9” in 2018-19; 163.1” in 2017-18; and 117.8” in 2016-17. The numbers are trending downward.
Sufficient snow — particularly early snow — can help some businesses even out the rush of customers, such as at a Christmas tree farm. Of course, business naturally slows down the week of Christmas. Most people have their trees, wreaths, centerpieces, décor items and kissing balls by then.
But earlier snow means more people thinking of buying these items in late November and early December instead of waiting until the second week of December. The latter strategy can mean a crush of customers coming out to a Christmas tree farm all at once. Either way, the farm makes money. However, the customer experience can be lessened with a huge crowd pouring onto the farm all at once.
“We opened Nov. 23 for Community Country Christmas,” said Faye Beckwith, owner of Beckwith Family Christmas Trees in Hannibal. “We had people come and cut their tree because Thanksgiving is later this year. People said they wanted to come before the snow falls. Then you have people who think it doesn’t feel like Christmas until the snow falls. Some families wait on getting a tree until later if there’s no snow.”
She added that still other families will simply schedule their tree cutting or pick-up for a specific date and go with that date regardless of the weather because they’re otherwise too busy with Christmas activities and their family’s other obligations. Beckwith estimated that half their customer base is young families who view tree cutting as a tradition and a photo op which a snowy background would only enhance.
The lack of snowfall can also affect her farm’s trees. Lower snowfall last year meant a lower water table and less moisture for the trees. But rainfall later in the season helped make up for it, as the Beckwiths didn’t have to irrigate the trees over the summer.
A shorter winter season means fewer opportunities for snow-reliant businesses to make money.
According to the Department of Environmental Conservation, “Across the northeastern U.S., winters are warming faster than any other season. Over the last century, average winter temperatures have increased by approximately 3°F, spring temperatures by 2°F and summer and fall temperatures by 1.4°F. Warmer temperatures mean lower opportunities for snowfall — and therefore the activities that depend upon snowfall such as snowshoeing.
Murdock’s Bicycles & Sports in Oswego relies on snow to boost its sales of snowshoes. Before current owner Greg Mills bought the business, Murdock’s transitioned from cross-country skis as its main winter sales product to snowshoes because the latter is more of a grab-and-go item that people can use anytime rather than cross-country skis that require a groomed trail. But either of those still needs snowfall. But selling fat bikes has helped the store during low-snow seasons.
“A number of bike models can be ridden on dry land or snow making biking a year-round event,” Mills said. “In addition, people still buy bikes for gifts or to prepare for the spring season. It gets slower in the winter, but the fat bikes can help draw people in.”
The cycles’ wide tires enable riders to ride in more weather conditions.
Murdock’s product diversity helps accommodate less-than-ideal weather. For mountain resorts, manmade snow can help draw in skiers and snowboarders. Jon Spaulding, director of marketing at Greek Peak in Cortland, hopes for a good season.
“Even with the record low natural snowfall totals last year, we were able to deliver 111 days on snow for our skiers and boarders last season, which was actually four more days than the year prior,” he said.
The resort has ramped up its snowmaking infrastructure with a $4 million investment to keep the snow falling. Greek Peak is in year four of a its five-year plan to bolster its capacity to make snow when none is available naturally.
Spaulding said that these upgrades should “improve our water and air flow delivery systems on the mountain and improve the overall guest experience through new technology and enabling more time on the snow each season. Without these investments and improvements, I don’t know where we would have been the past couple seasons given how low natural snowfall totals have been, but it has certainly positioned us well for the coming season and beyond.”
Some of the changes include 12 HKD snow guns added to the snow-tubing area to ensure full-lane coverage top to bottom of the hill and additional hydrants will also be installed across the mountain. These will “enable more snowmaking and terrain coverage, where a Techno Alpine Fan Gun valued at $48,000 was added to the mix this past season,” Spaulding said. “Additionally, new air and water lines have also been installed on Cristy’s Run.”
