“As the days grow longer, the cold grows stronger.”

That’s the old Vermont weather adage that refers to the fact that every year just after winter solstice, the thermometer heads toward zero. Vermont has always had white Christmases and New Year’s Eve is usually unutterably cold. Good night to stay inside.

This year, we had snow, sleet and ice on Thanksgiving and huge dumps of snow right after. Burlington schools took their first snow day of the year on December 3rd, which seemed like an ominous portent at the time. The temperature was in the teens. The usual people grumbled their usual complaints about “Global warming – big deal!” as they struggled to shovel out.

Then it got warm. Our white Christmas was the residual snow the 40-degree days couldn’t melt away fast enough. Now, post-solstice, the cold refuses to grow stronger.

I am by no means predicting a mild winter. Global warming is not a straight-line phenomenon and anyone who prefers one-day (or one-year) observations over trends is a fool.

Regardless of what people say, the real mouth is where the money is. Today’s Burlington Free Press reports that the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe purchased a snow-making machine for cross-country ski trails, a first for the area.

It seems a prudent investment in an era when the sky can no longer be trusted to deliver the snow, but I have to wonder what the amortization is like.