Later winters ‘hit the pocketbook’ for Mid-Michigan businesses

AURELIUS TWP, Mich. (WILX) - Warm weather in January can take a hit on businesses that rely on snow.

“You know this is like record-setting no snow, record-setting temperatures,” said Tyler Brown, Operations Manager at Lansing Lawn and Snow.

Related: Where is the snow?

For warm-weather people, that’s a good thing, but for Lansing Lawn and Snow, it’s less than ideal.

“When it’s dry for this long it can really hit the pocketbook,” said Brown.

The Stricklands own and operate Lansing Lawn and Snow, as well as their family farm.

“There’s many aspects of the business you can control but mother nature is not one of them,” said Stephanie Strickland, co-owner of Lansing Lawn and Snow. “In my opinion, just watching the weather as closely as I do for both jobs, I feel that the seasons have shifted, I don’t think it lines up with the calendar.”

They said late winters have become so reliable, that they’ve changed their schedule for the seasons.

“We completely planned to landscape right up through December. You know until Christmas break we were landscaping, 10 years ago I don’t think you would’ve done that. I don’t think you would’ve been able to do that,” said Brown.

With two seasonal companies, they’ve found ways to fill gaps.

“We cut wood, we repair machinery,” said Strickland.

The Stricklands are still betting on seeing more snow in February and March.

“I’m hopeful that my theory comes to fruition and we have snow in the next couple of months.” said Strickland.

First Alert Meteorologist Justin Bradford crunched the numbers, and what the Stricklands are seeing is accurate.

If you look at the past five years compared to the previous fifteen years, we’re getting less snow in December and more snow in February.

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