Local residents are bemoaning the weather this year once more, but they aren’t complaining about the cold.

An abnormal winter season has residents wondering when the snow is going to come.

“It’s just so rare to think you can take a nice, long walk and there isn’t a lot of snow out there,” said Julie Champlin, assistant at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center.

Champlin said traffic has been good at the Nature Center this week, since residents and families have come to walk the trails and take advantage of the center’s resources. Normally, plenty of people would be cross country skiing or snowshoeing, however.

But the warm weather is affecting more than just the Nature Center.

“It definitely has put a dent in business,” said Jeff Trimble, owner of Trimble’s Cycle Center, which sells snowmobiles.

Trimble said business was good up until the week before Christmas, when the unseasonable weather finally caused people to rethink their snowmobile purchases.

Trimble’s had booming business the past two winters, with plenty of snow each season. That’s not the case this year.

“The people aren’t coming in like they used to,” Trimble said.

Winter doesn’t look to hit hard for quite some time. Aside from a possible half-inch of snow Thursday night and Friday, Austin probably won’t have any white stuff on the ground in the foreseeable future, according to the National Weather Service.

“We haven’t had the capability yet,” said Dan Jones, NWS meteorologist. Jones said milder air has pushed all the cold air and snow north of Minnesota, partially due to the La Nina weather pattern which typically brings in warmer winters and dry conditions in the Midwest.

There might be a small snow system in the area Saturday, but the snow is expected to bypass Mower County and give areas to the north and east about 1 to 3 inches of the white stuff. Things look dry for Mower County next week, though weather patterns can change.

“It’s still kind of hard to predict that far out,” Jones said.

That doesn’t bode well for the Dammen Nordic Ski race, scheduled Saturday, Jan. 7. The race may be moved back to Jan. 14 if there’s no snow, and would be canceled after that should the weather not cooperate.

The warm weather is affecting more than just the ski race, as the wonky winter leaves many people adrift.

“For right now, it looks dry,” Jones said.