Climate Breakdown Means NE Economy Will Change - Skiing, Tourism, Sugarbush All At Serious Risk

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New England sits on the front line for some of the world's nastiest weather battles. Cold, dry air from the north and warm, moist air from the south wage an unending fight for control over the craggy terrain. Periodic attacks from ocean and mountain weather systems contribute to make the region's weather so wild and quick-changing that Mark Twain once described New England as being unable to hold all of its weather in. Yet for all that variability, New England's overall climate was surprisingly predictable from Colonial times, when record keeping began, until about 10 to 20 years ago, residents around the 45th parallel say.

For generations, Vermont sugar-makers tapped trees after Town Meeting Day -- the first Tuesday in March. A serious frost usually hit Northern New England by Oct. 15. Snow was on the ground by Thanksgiving, and ice fishing season began on New Year's Day. Now those Farmers' Almanac traditions need to be rewritten. Many maple syrup producers are tapping their trees in February -- and sometimes January. First frosts are arriving later in the fall and last frosts earlier in the spring. Serious snowfall can't be counted on by the first of December anymore.

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A retired farmer in Alburg, Vt., Dupere has always kept track of when the lake freezes, but he began relying on it when he took up ice fishing 23 years ago. On most winter days he would carry a 6-gallon white bucket onto the lake, turn it over to make a stool, and fish for sunfish and perch through a hole in the ice. Other fishermen would haul plywood and metal fishing shacks onto the surface, creating colorful shantytowns. But Lake Champlain doesn't freeze like it used to -- if at all. Nowadays, it freezes an average of 14 days later than it did in 1816, when record keeping began. And of the 33 winters when the lake did not freeze, 17 have occurred since 1970. "It's a lot different now than it was," Dupere said.

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Snow helped save Colebrook, N.H. As family dairy farms failed and local factories cut back and closed in recent years, the picturesque community on the Connecticut and Mohawk rivers became more reliant on cars with out-of-state license plates towing snowmobiles. Their owners lured by an abundance of snow and a labyrinth of trails, snowmobiles were outnumbering cars in the parking lot of Howard's restaurant by the late 1990s. But in the community of 2,500, where residents remember having to stick broomsticks into snowdrifts to find cars three decades ago, they need only a ruler now. Snowfall is unpredictable, residents say. And many lakes and ponds don't reliably freeze over, making it dangerous for snowmobilers to use trails that traverse them.

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/28/winter_warm_up_costing_ne_region/

or newly poor

nuff sed...