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[6]By Megan Pounder [7] and Selena Steele-Clough [8]
BELLEVILLE – People may not spend this Christmas in a winter wonderland.
The calendar might say it’s December, but the weather [9] certainly doesn’t reflect that. With temperatures possibly reaching as high as 11 C this week, snow is nowhere in sight.
Many people associate Christmas with the ground being white, fluffy and snow-covered. Belleville resident Keith Thompson said this year “doesn’t feel like Christmas without the ground being white.”
Thompson remembers sleigh rides on Christmas when he was a child and says children these days don’t get to experience that.
“Parents buy them skates and toboggans and skis and (they’re) trying to ski on green grass.”
Others are okay with the fact that the ground is still green. Loyalist College student Andrew Mauro said although it may not feel like Christmas, he’s enjoying the mild weather. Mauro says he thinks it will “be a lot easier to get home without having the snow.”
Belleville resident Susan McGeorge said she thinks “snow is almost angelic on Christmas day, (but) it can melt the next day.”
Thompson attributed the lack of snow to climate change [10], as did McGeorge.
“There’s definitely a change in the weather; one winter’s bad and then the next is like this,” McGeorge said.
Meteorologists say there’s still a chance of snow in time for Christmas, but it isn’t guaranteed to happen.