Tired of drought, Minnesota's winter enthusiasts eager for incoming snow

(FOX 9) - Some people are longing for summer right about now, but for others, the snow opens the door to a lot of winter activities.

While the lack of snow isn’t keeping kids from hitting the slopes, the drought has been less than ideal.

“I want a lot more because it’s really cold and I feel like if it’s this cold, we should be getting snow,” said Walter Zell of Minneapolis.

Well into January, and Minnesota has had very few notable snowfalls, leaving trails and hills painted brown.

“We’ve been trying to make a skating rink in our backyard, we haven’t been able to take our kids sledding. I just feel like my kids are missing out on the best parts of winter,” said Sonya Travanty of Wayzata.

Public parks like Staring Lake in Eden Prairie don’t have enough accumulation to open the sledding hill and ski area. Those who want to enjoy winter sports are instead having to commute to winter recreation areas that make snow, like Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. 

“It looks like November, which is the worst,” said Erik Fagerstrom of Minneapolis. “There’s lots of trails in the area that we can’t use without natural snow, so more and more we find ourselves at Theodore Wirth.”

But with wintry blast finally in the forecast, snow sport enthusiasts might finally get what they want.

“I’d like five inches a snow a week until about mid-march would be perfect,” said Andrew Berns, operations manager at Hyland Hills.