Sleds, shovels a tough sell for WMass stores

HADLEY, Mass. (WWLP) - Sleds and other winter equipment have been collecting dust in garages across western Massachusetts, and it doesn’t look like we will be seeing a white Christmas this year, either.

In fact, the most significant snowstorm in our area was in October of last year. After that a mild winter settled in and had not left; keeping sleds, shovels and even salt on the shelves at Rocky's Ace Hardware in Hadley.

The store's manager, John Beauregard, says its supply of winter items is last year's overstock.

“We have plenty of sleds left from last year, because like everybody who lives around here knows, we didn't have much of a winter last year. Not too much of an opportunity to use that type of thing,” Beauregard said.

December has largely been much warmer than normal, and some long-range predictions show that the warmer-than-average temperatures may last.

“I don't know, I guess it is what it is, I think we are just having a warmer December. The farmer's almanac predicted that,” Phil Marrama of Hadley said.

The Farmer's Almanac predicts we won't see any significant snow until late January. To see if there’s any snow at all heading our way anytime soon, check out the 22News Storm Team Forecast .