This winter has been one of the least snowy in Iowa. What does that mean for snow-dependent businesses?

DUBUQUE — A blanket of thick, white snow covers the slopes at the Sundown Mountain Resort in northeast Iowa, but just beyond it, the hills are bare — nothing but brown grass as far as the eye can seen.

The winter resort is a snowy oasis in a state that’s been experiencing one of its least snowy winters in more than 130 years. Dubuque, near Sundown, has had just 5.8 inches of snow this winter. Marion has measured just 7.7 inches of snow since November, and Moline has seen just 3.6 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Justin Glisan, the state climatologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said so far this snowfall season, most of Iowa is 12 to 20 inches below the normal snow measurement.

“Through the end of January, we’re currently experiencing a top five least snowiest seasons going back to 1887,“ Glisan said in an email to The Gazette.

While that poses a problem for some businesses that rely on winter weather, it’s not a problem for Sundown. In fact, the ski resort is having “a really good year.”

Sundown, like many ski resorts, makes its own snow. General Manager Mark Gordon said only about 2 percent of snow at the resort is natural snow that falls from the clouds.

The other 98 percent is manufactured snow, distributed over the ski slopes by large fan guns after the resort closes at night and early in the morning before it opens.

Gordon said last year, which was one of the top-10 warmest winters in the Midwest, hurt business more than this year’s lack of snow.

“Last year was terrible,” Gordon said. “It was a brutal warm here, we basically fought to make snow to get two major runs open.”

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Gordon said last season it was a struggle to even make snow, since they can’t happen until the temperature drops to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. And even after the resort made snow last season, it would “thin out” during the day as temperatures rose.

“It was OK, but it wasn't like normal,” Gordon said. “But this year is a totally different animal.”

With colder temperatures this winter, Gordon said more customers have come out to ski or snowboard at Sundown, resulting in the resort opening more ski runs and even their separate area for kids.

But making snow is an expensive endeavor.

“It depends on how you buy the fan guns, but they are about 25 grand a piece,” he said.

This year’s colder temperatures have help the manufactured snow stick to the ground. The resort made snow Wednesday, but before that, Gordon said they hadn’t had to “fire up those guns in a long time.”

On average, Sundown Ski Resort makes about three feet of dense snow with the fan guns each year.

“We haven’t had much snow, but seriously it’s been a good ski season,” Gordon said. “If you are a skier or you like to ski, it’s been great.”

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What’s making this winter different?

While the source of Iowa’s lack of snow can be traced to ocean temperatures, Glisan is quick to note that winter isn’t over.

“We still have two to three months to make up these snowfall deficits, especially considering February can be an active snowfall month,” Glisan said, adding that Iowa has seen snow in early May before, though that’s rare.

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The lack of snow comes as a surprise after experts predicted in the fall that the Great Plains — including Iowa — could experience a wetter and colder winter due to La Nina conditions.

La Nina is a natural weather pattern that occurs when the temperatures of the Pacific Ocean are cooler than normal. La Nina — also simply called “a cold event” — is often paired with El Niño, which happens when the ocean temperature is warmer than normal.

Although a La Nina pattern tends to favor cooler and wetter temperatures in the Midwest and northeast regions, the climate pattern can hit southern states with warmer than average temperatures.

Glisan said this year’s lack of snow is partly due to the country’s snow track being farther south and east, depriving the Upper Midwest states of moisture that comes north from the Gulf of Mexico.

Last year, El Nino was blamed for making it the warmest winter on record for much of Iowa.

“The strong El Niño event at the end of 2023 extending into early 2024 helped boost global average temperatures as well; this is typical for strong El Niño events,” Glisan said.

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Local impacts

Although Sundown is able to attract customers despite this year’s atypical winter, other local businesses haven’t been as fortunate.

Cortney Baker, store manager at Soko Outfitters in Cedar Rapids’ Czech Village, said the lack of snow has hit the store hard. Fewer people have bought winter coats and boots, or bought or rented outdoor recreation equipment.

Soko has been open for about six years. Baker said the first few years it was open, Soko fielded a lot of requests about snowshoe and cross-country ski rentals.

“We used to have almost 100 phone calls every season asking us if we had cross-country skis,” Baker said. “There's a ton of trails in the area that are groomed [and there are] a lot of options to take them out. It's a really popular sport around here.”

Based on that local interest, Soko Outfitters decided to offer skis and snowshoes for rent starting a couple of years ago.

It was “quite an investment, with the different sizes that you have to carry between all three units — the boots, the poles and the skis themselves — and we did that about two years ago,” Baker said.

But shortly after they purchased them for the store, the seasonal winter snow stopped coming consistently.

Because there has been limited snow in Iowa and fewer customers renting and buying the equipment, Soko Outfitters has reduced its supply.

Baker said they sold off some of their inventory — 10 of the 16 pairs of skis that were available to rent from the store.

“We've had [about a week] in the last two to three seasons of being able to actually rent them out. Because of that we decided that it's just not worth holding on to that inventory,” Baker said. “It's unfortunate, but we've decided to kind of sell off our rental fleet at the moment, just because the weather's been so unpredictable.”

Baker said that some people have still called the store about their rental programs if they are taking a trip outside of Iowa, but there has been “very little interest” in renting equipment this year.

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Looking forward

All hope is not lost for those who love snow.

Brian Pierce, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities Bureau, said there is potential for more precipitation to come later this season.

He said the bureau is seeing prospects of several snow chances over the coming weeks, but it’s difficult to tell how much snow or precipitation could fall.

“Knowing that Mother Nature likes to balance things out, that makes one very wary about February, March and April,” Pierce said. “We are seeing a pattern change that's been taking place so far since the month began, and we have the potential for it to turn much wetter than normal.”

He said temperatures have been a bit colder than normal, despite the warmer November and December.

But “then the script was flipped on temperatures, we were essentially colder than normal for January, because Mother Nature always tries to balance things out,” Pierce said.

Glisan said he’s uncertain what the rest of this month will bring, but it could be “more active.”

“Initial February outlooks are not giving a clear signal. However, short term climate outlooks are suggesting a more active weather pattern for the first half the month,” he said. “I think the expectation is a higher potential for more precipitation — rain and snow — along with colder temperatures.”

Overall, though, Pierce said this year has been an anomaly.

“With the La Nina, that developed during the fall, [it is] in very full swing, Pierce said.

Jared Strong of The Gazette contributed to this report.

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com