MINNESOTA, USA — Minnesota is no stranger to abnormal weather in the winter.
But a super El Nino is impacting the state this year and the businesses that rely on snow to operate.
At this point, it will be a shorter season, particularly at ski areas, like Hyland Hills Ski Area, where its normally busy cross-country trails just opened Friday morning.
"It's a little tougher to make snow on something that spread out," said Operations Supervisor Andrew Berns. "It's a different way to do it than on a ski hill."
The lack of snow means two ski runs are still closed and the business has already had to make all the snow necessary for the whole season. Berns says that requires millions of gallons of water.
"After this, it'll be just filling in what we lose, if we lose anything, in the next couple weeks and if anything melts," said Berns.
A far cry from last year when 90" fell, making it the third snowiest ever in the metro. Now, a rare super El Nino is pulling water some four degrees warmer than normal from the Pacific. It's creating a dramatic shift here for the first time since 2015-2016.
"Prior to that, you had to go back to 1997-1998 and prior to that, 1982-1983," said the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' Senior Climatologist Kenny Blumenfeld. "They come every 15 to 20 years on average."
One of the most powerful El Nino years dates back to 1887 when Blumenfeld says the lakes didn't freeze in December. He's hopeful that won't happen this time.
"We would like to get snow just to kind of maintain some balance in our hydrologic system in our rivers, lakes and groundwater supply," said Blumenfeld.
"Maybe that'll be our Christmas present this year," said Berns. "We may actually get some cold temps and snow."
Blumenfeld says an El Nino year is also usually followed by a lot of thunderstorms and we could still use the rain, too, after three years of drought.
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