A little over a year ago, the Boise School district ran the risk of prolonging the school year due to the copious amount of snowfall during the 2016-2017 winter season.

Boise schools experienced an extra week of not attending school after receiving 7 days off of school due, cashing in every snow day allocated.

Beyond the Boise School District, Mayor Dave Bieter declared a ‘State of emergency’  on January 15, 2017. This ‘State of emergency’ was declared as a response to the “unprecedented amount of snow” and was put into effect for 7 days.

One year later, Boise has not only avoided a state of emergency, but snowfall all together.

Despite it being February, Boise has experienced little to no snowfall and, in the place of snow, has been hit with rain and unseasonably warm temperatures. While locals who aren’t fond of the cold might rejoice, local businesses who thrive on the winter economy have taken a blow.

Bogus Basin, the local Boise ski hill, has received less snow than expected and spent a large part of January closed due to a lack of snow.

The lack of snow is unfortunate for those who hold season passes to the mountain, but has lead to a larger issue: revenue loss.

The winter seasons began and heavy snowfall was nowhere in sight. By December 19th the mountain had reported only having 9 inches of snow, 8-12 inches short of opening. After opening December 26, the hill went through several prolonged periods of being out of commission.

Being a ski hill, having snow is vital to keeping Bogus Basin open. Without it, Bogus relies on smaller factors of the resort to bring in revenue, which brings in substantially less than lift passes.

In order to compensate for the lack of snow, the ski hill stated that the price of next seasons tickets will remain the same, but the passes will be usable during the off season in attempt to compensate for any possible discrepancies next winter.

The new “mountain coaster” Bogus launched this year may act as a mechanism to make up for a fraction of the ski resorts losses, but only the end of the season report will reveal the true impact of the scarce snow on Bogus Basin.