 Temperatures are above normal, there's been more rain than snow --
and public works directors couldn't be happier. The mild weather has
been a boon for cash-strapped cities that have hardly touched their
salt supplies or snow-removal budgets.Despite some dire
predictions about frigid temperatures and record snowfall similar to
last year's storm that dumped more than 20 inches in Chicago, it's
been about 6 degrees warmer on average for much of Illinois so far.
The light snow is hardly worth mentioning, meteorologists and
municipal officials say.
Across the state, public works directors and streets and
sanitation officials are positively giddy when talking about the
mild weather, reveling in sunny skies and budget surpluses.
"It's been great," Bloomington public works director Jim Karch
said with a laugh. "My kids hate it, our budgets love it."
Bloomington has spent just $8,000 out of its $325,000 winter
labor budget, Karch said.
"Many municipalities, including Bloomington, have really seen a
lot of dollars of savings," he said. "We're hoping it stays savings
over the course of the winter.''
Neighboring Normal has spent nearly $2,100 on snow removal so far
this season, compared with more than $140,000 at the same time last
year, said Scott Dennewitz, street supervisor for the public works
department.
"We've just been very fortunate," Dennewitz said.
The National Weather Service is calling for above-average
temperatures and more rain than snow, at least through the first
week of January, said meteorologist Amy Seeley. But after that,
there's little consensus about what winter will bring, she said.
Chicago, which had been forecast to get the brunt of the snow and
cold this winter, has gotten a paltry 1.7 inches so far, compared
with 8.7 inches in a typical year, Seeley said.
"It's been a little bit underachieving so far to start off the
season," said AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok, who
nonetheless stands by his earlier forecast of snow and lots of it.
"Just give us some time as far as snow goes."
Chicago has spent $500,000 on snow removal in December, compared
with a whopping $6 million last year, said Matt Smith, spokesman for
the Department of Streets and Sanitation. The city has budgeted $20
million for this winter.
"This is almost like Florida," said Tim Hanson, public works
director for Rockford, who's ending the year with a $400,000 budget
surplus. The struggling northern Illinois city has spent $18,000 on
snow removal this December, compared with $1.1 million the previous
two Decembers and $2.1 million during the last month of 2008.
The lack of snow and the relatively balmy temperatures have meant
public works crews in the northern Chicago suburb of Itasca have
been able to focus on other work, including bringing a new
wastewater treatment plant online, said Ross Hitchcock, director of
public works.
"It could go like this the whole winter as far as I'm concerned,"
he said.
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But good news for municipal budgets is bad news for businesses
like Ski Snowstar Winter Sports Park in Andalusia, which has lost 25
percent of its revenue so far this season, said general manager Ed
Meyer.
"There's just no making that up," Meyer said.
The northwestern Illinois park usually opens the first weekend of
December. But rain and warm temperatures wiped out nearly all of the
snow that had been made, and the opening was delayed until Monday.
Instead of hiring 200-300 workers in the weeks leading up to
Christmas, Meyer had four.
Greg Meffert, meteorologist for the National Weather Service
office in Paducah, Ky., considers himself a winter-loving "snowie."
He has at times driven to St. Louis just to see a white-blanketed
ground.
That's not happening so much this year, he says, because of
complicated forecast modeling heavily weighted by La Nina -- the
cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that affects weather
worldwide -- and North Atlantic oscillation. Both, for now, are
conspiring against any immediate chances for a winter wonderland.
He calls the North Atlantic oscillation "the trump card," noting
that unless that phenomenon changes -- and it can on a dime -- "we
can expect this weather to continue, warmer and wetter than a normal
winter." For southern Illinois, that means expected temperatures in
the 50s through this weekend.
Everyone agrees anything could happen. Meteorologists certainly
aren't ruling out scattered blasts of arctic air from Canada and
heavy snowfall.
"We still are a little early into winter, so I wouldn't just call
everything off," Meffert said.
After all, the storm that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow and ice
across the state last winter didn't happen until February.
"In Illinois, you never know," Dennewitz said. "The weather
changes daily."
[Associated Press;
By KAREN HAWKINS]
Associated Press writer Jim Suhr contributed to this
report from St. Louis.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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