It's been a funny winter. After a start that set us on a pace for record snowfalls, we're down to zero snow in much of Leelanau County. And for the forseeable future, that's how it will stay.
A good article in the Soo Evening News describes the dynamics at work. Ordinarily, the relatively warm, open water on the lakes would generate lake effect snows when subjected to cold northwest winds. But for the past several weeks, and for the immediate forseeable future, we have been getting a "zonal flow" of mild winter air from the Pacific northwest, occasionally alternating with air masses moving north from the southwest.

As a result, shipping channels that are usually icing up by this time of year are ice free, and we are without snow.