Which of These Doesn't Belong?

Now, Smith said, housewares and garden tools occupy the best retailing spots. Some customers have asked about grass seed. One even wanted citronella candles -- used to ward off mosquitoes.

"People are not thinking about winter as much because they're not seeing it," he said. "I don't blame them."

Yesterday's high was 62 degrees, 18 degrees above average. Weather.com's "ski comfort index," rated from a low of one to a high of 10, was zero.

Brian Guyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, attributed the heat wave to southerly and southwesterly winds blowing in warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. Average snowfall for January is 6.2 inches, he said, but this year, the region had just "a trace."

That made last month one of the 14 least snowy Januarys in the 120 years that the National Weather Service has tracked that statistic, Guyer said. It also put Steve Borcherding's snow plowing business at nil.

Borcherding owns SAB Lawn & Landscaping Inc. and has 24 trucks that he can convert into snow plows. He set them up at the beginning of winter but had to take the plows off so that he could haul sod.

"We just shift according to the weather," Borcherding said. "The biggest pain is having to set up all of our snow stuff and downset it again."

In a very cold year with more than a dozen snowfalls, Borcherding said, he can make as much as $750,000 just from snow removal. An average year with four snowfalls brings $250,000 to $500,000.

Borcherding said he doesn't miss the business, because he's doing landscaping jobs instead. Plus, he has had time to clean his equipment and get his shop in order for spring. Plowing snow and salting, on the other hand, can require 40 hours of straight work. Christmas, New Year's, the Super Bowl -- he's had to work them all.

"I used to love snow. Now I hate it," he said. "I didn't used to have a wife and kids when I started. When it snows, I know I'm not going to be home for two, sometimes three days."

McLean said he doesn't believe that winter is over just yet. He isn't recommending fertilizer and he's even worrying about the mulch he carefully placed around the home in Great Falls -- a few inches of snow could turn it into dirt.

After all, Guyer reminds, the region's snowiest days have occurred in February, and flakes have fallen as late as May.

"In the snow business," McLean said, "there are no guarantees."

The latest forecast would be no surprise to him: Temperatures are expected to drop into the 20s next week, according to the National Weather Service.

And on Friday? A 30 percent chance of snow.