North's mild winter gives a glow to economy

In fact, the weather may be changing some buying habits. "I've stopped buying wool," says Tracy Mullin, president of the National Retail Federation. "Why bother for two months of winter?"

But for the most part, this winter will be remembered for the extra money in Americans' wallets. In October, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that Americans would spend about $75 total less on heating over the winter than last year. Since then, oil prices have continued to fall, standing at $50.57 per barrel Wednesday morning.

"Given the recent 60-degree weather in the Northeast, it's a good assumption that heating costs will continue to fall," says Neil Gamson, an economist at the EIA.

In Sherman, Conn., resident Peter Roche can attest to the break on his heating bill. He has filled up his 1,000-gallon fuel tank only once since spring. "Normally, the oil company puts in 500 gallons two or three times during the winter," Mr. Roche says.

But Roche is saving money on more than oil. His driveway has yet to be plowed, saving him $40 per plowing. He's still taking logs off last year's woodpile; it has been too warm to use the fireplace much. And because there's no snow near his second home in Vermont, he figures he's saving money on lift tickets.

Sherman's town government is also benefiting from the warm and dry winter. No snow helps the town of 4,200 save money on maintenance, says Don Lowe, a selectman. "Someone is always hitting something with a plow, and it's very expensive when the plow gets bent," he says.

For others, the snowless winter in the Northeast is a mixed blessing.

That's the case at Dolan Landscaping in Worcester, Mass. The company has yet to send out its snowplow trucks – in a region renowned for snowfalls measured in feet, not inches.

"On an average storm we probably make $3,000, and we usually have at least a couple storms a month," says company owner John Dolan. "The flip side with warm weather is we're still doing landscape-installation jobs that we normally don't do at this time of year, like planting trees, because the ground has yet to freeze."

For builders in the North, the warmer weather has been a boon. This time of year usually means digging lumber piles out of the snow, says Stephen Hinckley of Hinckley Brothers. "But when it's like this, you just show up and go to work," he says. "It may help my project go quicker at this point than I had anticipated," he says, noting that he built some slack into the schedule for bad weather but hasn't had to use it yet.

Alas, the good times probably won't last, says Gerald Mohler, an AccuWeather meteorologist in State College, Pa. "The weather pattern is changing right now," he predicts. "[Over] the next few weeks the temperatures will be below normal, and when we compare it with how we felt in the beginning of January it will be noticeable."

However, the colder weather isn't likely to override the gains from the warm temperatures to date, which have been 9 degrees above normal. "We would have to get an awful lot of cold weather," he says.

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