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Ski resort, Iowa DOT reflect on how lack of snow impacts operations

It won't be a white Christmas for central Iowans this year. With no snow on the ground, typical winter activities are being postponed or reworked.

BOONE COUNTY, Iowa — As the holidays approach, Iowans are seeing above-average temperatures for December, often exceeding 50 degrees in parts of central Iowa.

With no notable snow to be found across the state, the question is: Are businesses and other agencies that rely on snow and cold temperatures feeling an impact this month? 

Seven Oaks Recreation ski resort owner Joel Bryan says they're still seeing hundreds of Iowans show up each day to ski and snowboard.

Seven Oaks opened this year on Dec. 1, but without any natural snow from the sky, Bryan's family-owned resort has created their own snow through a process called nucleation.

This process can be expensive due to labor, energy and maintenance costs.

"As soon as we get start getting temperatures low enough to start blowing snow, we’ll start blowing snow again," Bryan said. 

Seven Oaks haven't been able to make and blow snow from scratch for the past couple days due to the weather, but Bryan said that will change once the temperatures and humidity levels begin to drop after Christmas.

However, Iowans don't seem to care whether its man-made snow or Mother Nature's at Seven Oaks.

Skiers and snowboarders Local 5 spoke with on Saturday said they thought the homemade snow had some serious "grip-iness" to it, but got the job done.

Without any snow falling on the roads in central Iowa, state departments like the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) haven’t had a chance to operate their plows.

Instead, their winter operations team has been hard at work fixing guard rails, clearing debris off the road and spreading brine.

Even without snow on the ground, Iowa DOT Winter Operations Administrator Craig Bargfrede said they're always prepared for any type of weather.

“If we need to go out and do some type of treatment, respond to a winter event, we can quickly get the remainder of that equipment mounted back on the trucks and do what we need to do for, for winter operations," he said. 

Bargfrede also noted there are more than 420 seasonal workers on their staff, and this abnormal weather gives them the "opportunity to do things we can't at this time of year."

But without a "white Christmas" on the forecast for Monday, Iowa businesses and departments will continue to operate they way they have so far in this warm December.

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