The last time there was measurable snow in the Quad Cities was more than a month ago on November 25, 2014. The month of December has only had flurries and that has both helped and hurt some in the Quad Cities.
There's only so much hoping and praying the snowboarders and skiers of the world can do to get a white December.
"I evidently am praying to the wrong snow god because it hasn't worked out yet," said Ed Meyer, general manager of Ski Snowstar.
Despite the earliest start there ever, the lack of snow combined with warm December days has caused a decline in customers.
"The common individual is if they look out their backyard and it's brown they don't think about skiing and that's had a huge impact, our numbers are down substantially," said Meyer.
Even Ski Snowstar's ability to make snow has not helped.
"We've made a whole bunch of snow a whole bunch of times but between it's been warm and rainy so we basically have started over twice," he said.
In December 2013, the Quad Cities had 13.8 inches of snow. This year, there have only been flurries.
"It's a big break for us," said Doug House, Municipal Services General Manager for the City of Moline.
"The biggest two months of the 2014 winter for us were January and February and as we all know, we had a record winter, lot of overtime involved so this is saving us tens of thousands of dollars on a budget that was already hurt pretty badly by the winter," he said.
The bottom line, leaving some hoping and praying for different forecasts in the month to come.
"Any day you miss during the holidays that isn't what it should be, you never make that up, you never recapture that," said Meyer.
"Since you've called me, it's started to flurry so we're not going to put it in the bank that it's going to be like December, but we're hoping for a mild winter," said House.