CABLE, Wis. — This year, it seemed like an apparition: Hundreds of skiers gliding through pine and birch forests here in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. The 50th year of the world-famous American Birkebeiner race, inspired by a 13th-century Norwegian war tale, was under way — against the odds and a bit slushier than usual.
Organizers spent days earlier spreading 1,100 truckloads of artificial snow across brown slopes — possible only with $600,000 worth of snow-making equipment installed after an ill-timed February thaw canceled the race in 2017. During what has been a lost winter for the Upper Midwest, it brought a rare taste of normalcy to a place where thriving through frigid temperatures is a point of pride and a way of life.
But otherwise, this season’s extremes are impossible to ignore across the Northwoods: Snowless ground so muddy, you’d think it was April. Lake ice too thin to support pickup trucks, if even ice fishers themselves. Empty snowmobiling trails. Bars and hotels desperate for visitors.
The harshness of a typical winter is “what makes living here great,” Marty Wiitala, a 59-year-old from Minneapolis, said after crossing the Birkie finish line. “You’ve got to figure out how to make winter fun.”
But what if winter never comes?
It could mean a mental health boost and a salve for “shack wacky” winter blues, at least. Cold weather-related deaths are down, and there are hopes of an extended summer tourism season. But for the many Minnesotans, Wisconsinites and Michiganders confronting the mildest winter they’ve ever experienced, the realities of fast-warming winter temperatures and markedly declining ice cover are becoming difficult to ignore. On the heels of a massive snowfall last winter, it portends an unpredictable future — and a loss of the sorts of winters Midwesterners have come to know.
“There are some people that say this is going to be the new normal,” said Debra Croft, a 63-year-old resident of Carlton, Minn., who skied in the 18-mile Kortelopet event Feb. 21. She was thrilled the race went on as scheduled, even if just on a six-mile loop.
Sunday’s marquee American Birkebeiner Classic race would normally have been a 34-mile sojourn through bone-chilling winds from Cable to Hayward, Wis. But Croft said she can remember years where lacking snow and ice meant the racecourse was cut short, or redirected from a picturesque finish on Hayward’s Main Street.
As joyful as this year’s event was for Croft, a veteran of 11 full Birkies and a dozen Kortelopets, a shorter event alongside the Birkie, the thought of missing out on more of them is almost too much to bear: “That would not be a good year.”
# ‘No good reason to come north’
This part of northern Wisconsin, like the tundra of northern Minnesota or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is normally a winter playground for people from across the region, if not the country.
Around communities like Rhinelander, home of a mythical creature known as the Hodag, or the lakeside town of Minocqua, arrow-shaped signposts point the way to family cabins and summer campgrounds. Networks of trails normally carry snowmobiles to remote bars, breweries and restaurants.
But without the trappings of a winter wonderland, many tourists have stayed home or headed to where snowpack is closer to normal.
“There’s been no good reason to come north,” said Mitch Mode, owner of Mel’s Trading Post, a sporting goods store in Rhinelander.
Hotels, restaurants and hospitality businesses have reported losses of as much as 80 percent of their normal winter sales, said Chris Ruckdaschel, executive director of the Hayward Area Chamber of Commerce.
You should see the Alps these days. Snow was a way of life in lots of places where winters are now shorter, rainier and more erratic.
So, what to do? Idle 1100+ trucks of “snow”. That’ll soothe Earth’s woes. /s
The world is changing faster than anyone thought possible. As a kid I remember regular snow days, building huge snowmen in the garden and winters being cold. Now, they are just wet. Snow comes once every three years if that where I grew up, a couple of millimeters which don’t even last a morning.
4 comments
CABLE, Wis. — This year, it seemed like an apparition: Hundreds of skiers gliding through pine and birch forests here in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. The 50th year of the world-famous American Birkebeiner race, inspired by a 13th-century Norwegian war tale, was under way — against the odds and a bit slushier than usual.
Organizers spent days earlier spreading 1,100 truckloads of artificial snow across brown slopes — possible only with $600,000 worth of snow-making equipment installed after an ill-timed February thaw canceled the race in 2017. During what has been a lost winter for the Upper Midwest, it brought a rare taste of normalcy to a place where thriving through frigid temperatures is a point of pride and a way of life.
But otherwise, this season’s extremes are impossible to ignore across the Northwoods: Snowless ground so muddy, you’d think it was April. Lake ice too thin to support pickup trucks, if even ice fishers themselves. Empty snowmobiling trails. Bars and hotels desperate for visitors.
The harshness of a typical winter is “what makes living here great,” Marty Wiitala, a 59-year-old from Minneapolis, said after crossing the Birkie finish line. “You’ve got to figure out how to make winter fun.”
But what if winter never comes?
It could mean a mental health boost and a salve for “shack wacky” winter blues, at least. Cold weather-related deaths are down, and there are hopes of an extended summer tourism season. But for the many Minnesotans, Wisconsinites and Michiganders confronting the mildest winter they’ve ever experienced, the realities of fast-warming winter temperatures and markedly declining ice cover are becoming difficult to ignore. On the heels of a massive snowfall last winter, it portends an unpredictable future — and a loss of the sorts of winters Midwesterners have come to know.
“There are some people that say this is going to be the new normal,” said Debra Croft, a 63-year-old resident of Carlton, Minn., who skied in the 18-mile Kortelopet event Feb. 21. She was thrilled the race went on as scheduled, even if just on a six-mile loop.
Sunday’s marquee American Birkebeiner Classic race would normally have been a 34-mile sojourn through bone-chilling winds from Cable to Hayward, Wis. But Croft said she can remember years where lacking snow and ice meant the racecourse was cut short, or redirected from a picturesque finish on Hayward’s Main Street.
As joyful as this year’s event was for Croft, a veteran of 11 full Birkies and a dozen Kortelopets, a shorter event alongside the Birkie, the thought of missing out on more of them is almost too much to bear: “That would not be a good year.”
# ‘No good reason to come north’
This part of northern Wisconsin, like the tundra of northern Minnesota or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is normally a winter playground for people from across the region, if not the country.
Around communities like Rhinelander, home of a mythical creature known as the Hodag, or the lakeside town of Minocqua, arrow-shaped signposts point the way to family cabins and summer campgrounds. Networks of trails normally carry snowmobiles to remote bars, breweries and restaurants.
But without the trappings of a winter wonderland, many tourists have stayed home or headed to where snowpack is closer to normal.
“There’s been no good reason to come north,” said Mitch Mode, owner of Mel’s Trading Post, a sporting goods store in Rhinelander.
Hotels, restaurants and hospitality businesses have reported losses of as much as 80 percent of their normal winter sales, said Chris Ruckdaschel, executive director of the Hayward Area Chamber of Commerce.
**Read more:** [**https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/02/28/midwest-lost-winter-no-snow/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/02/28/midwest-lost-winter-no-snow/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
You should see the Alps these days. Snow was a way of life in lots of places where winters are now shorter, rainier and more erratic.
So, what to do? Idle 1100+ trucks of “snow”. That’ll soothe Earth’s woes. /s
The world is changing faster than anyone thought possible. As a kid I remember regular snow days, building huge snowmen in the garden and winters being cold. Now, they are just wet. Snow comes once every three years if that where I grew up, a couple of millimeters which don’t even last a morning.