I'm not gonna lie, y'all -- the ability to be out in shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of February is pretty amazing. There were even some previously-scheduled indoor activities that I had agreed to this past weekend that made me feel guilty that I wasn't outside. (They seemed like great ideas at the time.) But you know who probably doesn't like this weather? Our good friends at the North Carolina ski resorts.
To wit ....
"[U]nseasonably warm weather has caused headaches for ski resort operators in North Carolina ..."
" 'This weather is crazy,'
said Chris Green, mountain manager at Sapphire Valley, about an hour
south of Asheville. "When it's this warm no one's thinking about going
skiing. We have a short time to cover our bills. Skiing on the East
Coast is a very short season. Any time we lose skiing it hurts us."
Keep in mind, those comments were made almost a month ago. I doubt things have improved much since. Which is a shame, since the ski resorts offer some great economic benefits to the state. According to this article, a November 2015 economic value report commissioned by the North
Carolina Ski Areas Association showed that the six ski areas contributed
$197.2 million to North Carolina's economy during the 2014-15 season. In addition, the study found that the region's six ski areas had more than 650,000 visits, provided 87
year-round jobs and 1,787 seasonal jobs and generated nearly $40 million
in gross revenue from ski area operations.
There's still hope. We still have March to go. And it's not uncommon for us to get some white stuff then.
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