AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
In Denver, a major winter snowstorm has caused the cancellation of 300 flights at Denver International Airport. Seven inches of snow has fallen there. In neighboring Utah, Salt Lake City is under a foot of snow, 2 feet in some places. It's the mountain West's first big snowstorm of the season, and it comes as much of the rest of the country is experiencing weather that's either unusually warm or just unusual. At Philadelphia City Hall, the ice rink has been set up, except recently it's been warm - today, about 60 degrees - so warm that Lakp Weedor wondered if the ice rink is really ice.
LAKP WEEDOR: I'm just, like, thinking whether it's real or it's fake or why would it still be there and not melting.
CORNISH: In Seattle, it usually rains in December, but not as much as this December. Here's Margot Ackerson in Seattle.
MARGOT ACKERSON: Usually, I'm training for, like, half-marathons, but it's just too rainy this year. And so I try to avoid, like, being - like, running and doing things outside as much as possible 'cause it's so rainy.
CORNISH: But Robert Johnson isn't making any changes on account of Seattle's extra rain.
ROBERT JOHNSON: Nothing different, really - yeah, just suffering through it.
CORNISH: Vermont's been warmer than usual. Normally there'd be snow by now. Penny Muzzey lives in Westminster at the southern end of the state. Her husband plows snow for a living.
PENNY MUZZEY: He might have to go on unemployment for the wintertime, which we never want to do because he wants to be out there working. So if it's not snowing, it kind of impacts our income quite a little bit.
CORNISH: In Chittenden, Vt., Patrick Boandl runs the Wooden Barrel Country Store. This time of year, they count on business from winter sports.
PATRICK BOANDL: Well, you hear, you know, a lot of the argument whether or not it has to do with climate change and stuff, so that's always a morning topic. You know, just a lot of people speculating on what's going to happen in the next few weeks. And it's not looking good for the Christmas weekend unfortunately. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.