Along the Halifax waterfront, the Evergreen Festival features outdoor activities, businesses on display and pedestrians all enjoying the beginning to a pre-Christmas wintery season.
So far, with the rain and mild temperatures, that has not been the case.
The general manager at Ski Martock in Windsor, N.S., Andy Maclean, is currently charting two schedules - one is when the ski season will end.
“There are years we can go when it was almost going to May,” said Maclean.
He's also hoping one of these days ski season will be able to start.
“We are always shooting for that middle weekend in December," said Maclean. "And we always know we are going to be a couple of weeks on either side of that."
Given the weather forecast, Ski Martock should be able to make snow starting this weekend.
“We are really efficient and the system is efficient," said Maclean. "We have the capacity to make a lot of snow quickly.”
In New Brunswick, an ideal scenario would feature cold, snowy conditions across the province to help jump start the skiing and snowmobile seasons.
“You would have the ground frozen and the snow comes after that," said Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick CEO Andrew McNair. "And the snow will last a lot longer as well."
A pre-Christmas frigid snowy base can spark December travel bookings at several ski hills, which also helps restaurants and hotels.
“And that will set them up the entire season,” said McNair.
As for snowmobiling, snowfall is required.
“Snowmobiling is a huge part of the tourism economy," said McNair. "Especially in the northern part of the province where snow is more prevalent and consistent.”
McNair said snowmobile trail networks run through most of the province but without snow, no one is snowmobiling.
