I hate global warming

It's nearing the end of January and being one of the coldest months in Ontario (the other being February, not too far off) you would never know it if you stepped outside. We had a couple of freak snowstorms in December which put a nice ring on the Christmas holidays, but January has been dismal. I can probably count the number of days it's snowed on my left hand.

Granted, most of you are probably not complaining as I write this. I grew up waiting for winter and then summer. I've never liked spring or fall. Too wet and too blah. Rollerblading in the summer and skiing in the winter, that was the life for me.

Often I came across the dumbfounded look on people's faces when I told them I was looking forward to winter. My screensaver is a snow-covered forest along the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, while the rest of the office has white sand beaches and clear blue warm oceans.

Granted I wasn't selfish, I was happy with the three months of pure excitement that mother nature bestowes upon us ... January, February, and March. Three out of the twelve months isn't asking for much is it? Besides, if you wanted sun all year round then Florida is where you should be. And I wasn't afraid to tell somebody that.

But what's happening lately? Western Canada is experiencing some unusually high temperatures for this time of year. In fact the Grouse Mountain ski resort located just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia opened their ski and snowboard operations early. The 2005/2006 ski season looked promising. Many of the Rocky Mountain resorts were getting record snowfalls in October.

But it would not last long because Mother Nature playing a cruel joke on us and tempting us with just enough snowfall to force us to wax our skis and snowboards early in anticipation for the upcoming season. Then in the words of Emeril, BANG! she melted our hopes away.

Grouse Mountain had to close because the weather was too warm even with a snowmaking operation. Plenty of Canadian resorts went on a semi-alert status with the warmer weather because of avalanche concerns.

At Ski Fernie in British Columbia, on an actual groomed run, a slab of snow (ok, not quite an avalanche movie-style) broke off and partially buried nine skiers (including a ski patroller).

CTV News - Avalanche almost buries skiiers in Rockies

This ski season is unbelievable! A record number of Colorado ski resorts were opening early, in fact before Halloween! Most have had record snowfalls within the last 2 months.

Here in Ontario, we've got a lot of rain and warm temperatures in the low-digits. As I look outside I see not a piece of snow in sight.

Global warming is all good when we get warmer summers, but when it impacts my snow season ... well, that's just not right. I used to ask for at least 3 good months of snow to ski and snowboard. Looks like we'll barely get 1-2 months this year.

I just hope all those ski resorts also operate golf courses so they can capitalize on the loss of their winter bread-and-butter. You suppose they can build a hole on every run? I wonder if uphill or downhill golfing would be easier?