Warm temperatures continue well into next week and snowmobilers are looking to the skies for more fluffy white stuff to enjoy the ride again.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much snow to start to get many groomers going.

"We did manage to groom some trails up in Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, where what we call the west mound. We made one loop," says President of the Westman Sno-Trackers. "We did not open any trails in the prairies, but for a small window there ... actually we opened the trails last Friday, and I closed them yesterday [Wednesday] morning."

"That's the shortest season I remember, but hopefully it's temporary and maybe we'll still get some more snow," he adds.

Weidenhamer says these warm temperatures at this stage of the winter season reminds him of the 1980's, and he's not the first person who has shared that insight this past week.  He says we're not alone with this warm weather, as its most certainly across the prairies and into BC.

"I have two sons who made a trip to Fernie, BC last week and had a couple of days of great riding there, and then they had 'torrential downpours' so they went from decent snow to lack of snow very quickly and spent one day doing nothing there, and then just decided to come home," he shares. "And Fernie is right in the heart of the mountains where the snow is usually very deep.  It was, but then they got quite a bit of rain."

For snow-goers it's an unfortunate year, and for snowmobile sales it's been very trying, to say the least.

To warrant the groomer coming out of the shed there needs to be about a foot of snow, a good dumping of snow at one time would be best.  It's only the start to February but if the warm weather continues beyond next week without a chance of flurries we might as well call it quits for winter.  March is just a stone's throw away, and at this rate there won't be any snow left to make a snowball!

Weidenhamer says this late in the season it may not be worth the effort, or the money spent to groom trails if the snow in fact does return. 

But then we must remind ourselves that we live in Manitoba and we could still get snow well into March, April ... and even in May! 

Please listen to more with Gord Weidenhamer below as he shares more on the grooming costs and how the lack of snow affects our local clubs.