"I normally like to shoot for the first or second weekend in December and obviously I"m not going to make that this year," he said. "So, Iike to say I'm shooting for the 15th but most likely with that warm weather coming in it's most likely going to be the 22nd, the weekend of the 22nd."

But surf the web and ski resort videos show some hills opened Thanksgiving weekend. That includes Ski Brule in Iron River, Michigan and Granite Peak near Wausau. Brule's current base is at 24-to-36 inches of both natural and man made snowl. That gave ski and snowboard outfitters a nice weekend business bump.

"Clothing was booming this weekend. Hats, coats, mitts. Everything to keep warm after the cold weekend we had," said Chris Zeller, owner of Zeller Ski and Sports. "The snow really helped us, even though it was an inch and probably will be gone in the next couple of days."

Opening in time for Christmas is certainly on the wish list for ski-hill operators. That and a very good rest of the season

"Hopefully the odds are with us that we'll some more natural snow and it'll just stay cold. And if it just stays cold, we can make snow," Lodl said.