While part of Europe have been suffering a dry spell throughout December, that has largely eased with snowfalls since Christmas, it's a similar if not more severe picture on the Pacific coast of North America where ski areas are yet to benefit from some of the deep powder for which they are famous.
The problems have largely been caused by a ridge of high pressure that has hovered over the region for a month or so.
The snow shortage is particularly affecting coastal resorts in states and provinces like California and British Columbia whereas once you move inland to states like Colorado And Utah conditions are more 'normal.'
In some large areas, such as Canada' BC, there's also more snow at inland ski areas than coastal ones.
2010 Winter Olympic venue Whistler Blackcomb reports 'lower than average' snow cover but still has top to bottom skiing on its pistes. The famous resort actually opened a day early in November and has used snowmaking and the base it built up in Autumn to see it through recent weeks, along with a few small snowfalls. A spokesperson told local media yesterday that business levels were 'normal.'
At the south of the region Mammoth in California is also snowmaking at capacity when cold enough and reports 85% of groomed terrain open, although its base of 30-60cm is well below the norm.
The problems are most severe on Vancouver island where Mt Washington, often one of the snowiest resorts in the world, has been unable to open so far this season. The picture above was taken there in June 2011 when the area was unable to open summer biking operations due to too much snow.
Mt Baker, which is located on the Pacific Coast in Washington state and IS officially the world's snowiest resort is said to have' bucked the trend' and dopes have a reasonable snow base of up to 1.7m, although it still lags behind its seasonal average.