Seriously, Where's The Snow?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It feels more like an early spring day than a mid-December day. Quite a difference compared to last year on this date.

It was then that we already had 17 inches of snow, following our big December blizzard of 2010. And a lot of Minnesotans are anxiously waiting for a good amount of snow to fall this year.

Braden, Baeuer and Blake are looking forward to snow. But what they really want is cold weather so they can play hockey, right here at home.

It just doesn't feel like December -- and it sure doesn't look like it either.

Andy Neudecker's backyard ice rink looks more like an above-ground pool.

"Oh, I'm waiting for it to get cold, so we can get to playing hockey," he said. "The boys are getting restless."

They're anxiously waiting for winter, ever since building the rink at their St. Louis Park home. The water froze the first night, only to melt the next morning.

"When I say I'm waiting, like, I'm waiting," Neudecker said. "I wake up in the morning and I come out. Call my wife at lunch and see what it looks like."

This winter isn't even the warmest on record in the Twin Cities and it's certainly not the snowiest either. That record falls to last year's December -- 33 inches of snow fell total.

If only it were that good for skiers.

Curt Hillstrom's waited all year to cross-country ski.
But the slopes at Theodore Wirth Park are so bare, there's barely a course.

It only runs a kilometer, a fraction of what it usually is.

"I don't know what I can do about it," he said. "Just hope for the best, just wait for mother nature."