Vermont is rolling into January with warm temperatures and lack of snow. In the past, at this time there has been a good amount of snow and snowfall, but this year that’s not the case with the grass and dirt showing. This has caused problems for any outdoor activities involving snow. A student at BMU and also a member of the BNN staff talks about some of the impact this weather has on the snowmobiling community. Brody Kingsbury’s thoughts and concerns express, “The trails officially open on December 15th but it’s all depending on the amount of snow. The lack of snow effects our riding because we lose riding time and it’s not very cheap to register and insure your snowmobiles just for a few rides out on the trails. Snow is important because the trails either go threw farm fields or the woods and we don’t want to tear them up because that’s how the trails get shut down for good.” Kingsbury is hoping for a good dumping of snow.

With that said, the temperatures have not been consistent. It’s either cold 20s or lower, or 40s and higher. With those temperatures there hasn’t been snowfall it has been raining and the group has been freezing and toughing on and off. With It being so warm the ice hasn’t frozen on the lakes and ponds. This has affected the ice fishers. Kason Blood, a student at BMU, has some thoughts and concerns about the shortened ice fishing season. Blood says out of the ponds he has seen, there has only been a little over one inch of ice. Usually, four inches of ice is safe enough to be out on the water. Blood hopes that the temperatures change so he and the people can get out on the ice.