North's mild winter gives a glow to economy

Without a flake of snow on the ground, Sherman, Conn., is saving money on sand, salt, and overtime pay for its snowplow crews.

Thanks to the East's warmer weather, hybrid automobiles in the region are getting better gas mileage.

In Tewksbury, Mass., Hinckley Brothers, a construction company, was still ordering concrete this week because the ground had yet to freeze.

The mercury finally took a plunge Wednesday in the Northeast, reminding everyone that groundhogs and tulips are a long way from surfacing. But with almost half of the winter season over, the balmy temperatures over the past two months are expected to give the entire US economy the equivalent of an invigorating trip to the tropics – as much as a 0.5 percent boost to the gross domestic product in the winter months, economists estimate.

"Assuming we don't make up for this in February, it is a bit of a positive in the winter [economic] quarters," says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's. "It's worth about $600 billion on an annual rate, so it's a lot of money."

That said, Jack Frost has nipped into the California economy, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to citrus crops this week. And weather-related power outages in the Midwest will keep some businesses closed.

To the degree that savings accrue, much of it will be in the Northeast, where winter just seemed reluctant to arrive until Wednesday. Long-range forecasts from AccuWeather suggest the arctic air may not stay, but rather come and go in cycles.

Of course, June weather in January hurts some businesses that count on snow and cold. Wachusett Mountain ski area near Worcester, Mass., closed two days last week for the first time since a winter some 15 years ago that was dubbed "June-uary."

So far this season, sales of day lift tickets are down 25 to 30 percent, says Tom Meyers, director of marketing at Wachusett Mountain. Still ahead is the February school break – one of the biggest weeks of the year.

"There's a lot of winter in front of us," says Mr. Meyers. "And everyone in the ski industry is eternally optimistic."

While ski parks at least can make snow even when none falls, snowmobile enthusiasts in the Northeast have been largely stranded for two years running. In Maine, the industry brings in $350 million – the equivalent of 3,300 full-time jobs, says Bob Myers of the Maine Snowmobile Association.

When snow refuses to fall, it's not just snowmobile retailers who hurt, but also repair and rental shops, and motels and restaurants along the 13,500 miles of maintained trails that cross the state from end to end.

"Snowmobiling takes place in pretty rural parts of the state, and the businesses it affects for the most part are small, family-run businesses," says Mr. Myers. "These people can't afford to take this kind of hit."

Some retailers, too, are bemoaning a winter of lost sales, particularly for hats, scarves, gloves, and coats. "These sales are not transferable to other products," says Jim Baum, president of Baum's, a department store in Morris, Ill.

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