PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — By this time during a customary winter, Carol Henderson of Presque Isle said on Monday, she and her family are usually out snowmobiling or her children, ages 11 and 9, are at least out making snowmen.
But with the lack of snow on the ground and the higher-than-normal temperatures, they haven’t even taken the wrapping off the snowshoes they got for Christmas.
“In fact, last weekend my daughter was out in the yard using her hoola hoop,” Henderson said Monday. “It has been that kind of winter so far. You don’t see any ice fisherman, you see kids playing with summer toys.”
December 2015 ended as the warmest on record at Caribou, Houlton and Bangor, with temperatures that averaged nearly 10 degrees above the 30-year average, according to the National Weather Service in Caribou. There were even reports of spring flowers starting to sprout in coastal communities on Christmas Day, when highs were in the 50s.
In Caribou, Jason Francis said he has played several outdoor pickup games of basketball games with his friends.
“It is still warm enough some days that you can shoot around in your yard if you have blacktop,” he said. “Why go to the gym when you don’t have to?”
Melissa Mcpherson of Houlton said she and her husband usually stop running outside by mid-December and join a gym.
“We haven’t had to do that yet because of the weather,” she said Monday. “The good thing is, it is saving us some money and it also breaks up the monotony of having to run on a treadmill and stare at a TV or a magazine while you do it. So I am not looking forward to the time when the temperatures really dip and the sidewalks become clogged with snow.”
Still, McPherson said that she was excited to hear that snow was predicted in the forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday.
“My husband and I are getting a bit antsy to get out on the ice and go fishing,” she said.