Michigan winters, as generations have known them, may be coming to an end

[marmar]

Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press


Karl Schwartz wishes he was simply chasing glory on the snowmobile racing track. Instead, in recent years, he has been forced to chase increasingly elusive cold weather.

Schwartz, of Freeland, is president of the Midwest International Racing Association, a snowmobile racing circuit operating primarily in Michigan for more than 40 years. Their weekend races draw about 100 teams, hundreds of racers and crew members, and thousands more fans, usually as part of a local community's winter festival.

But each year, as Michigan's climate changes, it's getting harder to do.

"We race on ice, not snow," he said. "We don't need snow — we need cold temperatures."

....(snip)....

Michigan's cold, snowy winters, and a way of life built around them, are being disrupted by climate change. And for winter festivals reliant on cold, snow and ice — and communities reliant on the economic boost at a slow time that those festivals bring — it's causing some scrambling to adapt, and even to survive.

The Great Lakes region has seen a larger increase in annual average temperatures than the rest of the continental U.S. And "winters are getting warmer more quickly than the summers are," said Richard Rood, a professor in climate and space sciences and engineering at the University of Michigan. ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/in-depth/news/local/michigan/2021/01/03/michigan-winter-festivals-climate-change/3954384001/?

[MichMan]

1. You would have a hard time convincing me of that today

Snow and Ice covering the roads and trees. Power was out today for nearly 8 hours. Seems pretty normal

[marmar]

2. One day does not a trend make.

Winters are clearly getting warmer. Five or six inches is now a massive snowstorm here in southeast Michigan. When I was a kid in the 1970s that wouldn't even close school.

[Blues Heron]

3. I wonder why...