"I miss the snow, I love the snow. I like to skate, I like to cross-country ski," says Sally Kuphal.
This may not be the year for winter sports, which some folks in Michiana are happy about.
"I think the weather is great. We have a motorcycle and I'm ready to get the bike out of the garage and be able to ride," says Barbara Ramenda.
Whether you like it or not, the numbers are out. Weather experts say 2012 was the hottest year on record in the continental U.S. And in Michiana, "Most of the months were warm and really the big thing during our year, temperature-wise was March being freakishly warm," says Craig Clark, assistant professor of meteorology at Valparaiso University.
He says this winter is following that same trend, which could mean bad things in the future. "It's bad that we started off dry already and then hadn't had as much snow pack this winter because if we have a warm spring the soil will dry out faster than it otherwise would."
He says the reason for the warmer temperatures is the changing weather patterns. "It so happens that rather than a nice cold pattern like we had a couple winters ago, we've been in a mild pattern this winter."
And if we continue to have warm weather and no snow, he says a drought is more likely this summer. "Over long periods of time, we are slowly, but surely getting warmer and so while we'll still have cold winters we're certainly going to have more mild winters than cold winters going forward."
And for some that's ok.
"It's been great having mild winters," says Ramenda.
