Minnesota's abnormally warm weather and lack of snow headed into the holiday season is presenting some unique circumstances for the companies tasked with clearing driveways and parking lots across the Twin Cities.
At this point last year, Ryan Warner and the employees at Warner Outdoor Solutions in Woodbury had already been knee-deep in snow. That's not the case this year.
"When you have a winter like last year, we have roughly 36 in-house crews which takes a lot of workers," Warner told Tom Hauser from 5 Eye Witness News as he filled in on the WCCO Morning News. "When it's not snowing at all, it gets pretty hard to keep everybody busy."
According to the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities, the daily average temperature has been above normal in the Twin Cities every day in December.
The above-average temperatures don't make for great outdoor ice rink conditions, either.
"That season is pretty short this year," Warner said. "Normally you can skate on your rink before Thanksgiving. This year, I don't know when you can. We installed about 10 for our customers and sadly we did fill them up in November because we had cold weather. Now they're more for duck hunting."
Warner said in 2011, the year of the Metrodome roof collapse, his company lost money due to flat, monthly contracts. Instead, they charge per hour or per push ever since.
"It's a balancing act. A lot of our employees need that check from week to week to pay their bills. When you have no revenue coming in, you have to stop tapping into lines of credit to make things work. I've been doing snow removal for over 20 years, so we've had winters where we only plow five times a winter. We are diversified and we do tree work, hang Christmas lights for customers, and have projects around our shop to keep people busy."