WINNIPEG -- It’s been a December to forget for people in the southern part of the province who were hoping to take advantage of winter for activities such as cross-country skiing and snowmobiling, thanks to a lack of snow on the ground.

It’s something a team of scientists, who recently examined changing winter conditions in the northeastern United States and parts of Canada, concluded we should get used to seeing.

The scientists looked at 100 years of winter temperature and precipitation data across the northern forest region of northeastern North America, which includes the southern Prairies. Their findings were published by the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation.

The scientists found that between 1917 and 2016 the southern Prairies lost 17 days of snow cover -- defined as the number of days with a snow depth greater than zero millimetres.

“Although the strength of the trends varies across the region, the overall picture is one of declining winter conditions,” a report on the research concluded. “This loss of cold and snow has profound implications for water, wildlife, forests, and people -- and may ultimately reshape the ecological and social fabric of the northern forest region.”

This year specifically, data from Environment and Climate Change Canada shows so far this December Winnipeg has received about 13 centimetres of snow -- well below the 23 centimetres it normally gets in December.

“We are at values that are below normal,” said Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. “It’s not the end of the month yet and we are expecting some snow this weekend, so I think we’ll get closer to that normal but we’ll probably still be under it -- at least in the city, anyway.”

At the Windsor Park Nordic Centre in Winnipeg, cross-country skier Joel Peltz said finding enough snow to ski on this month in the southern part of the province has been a challenge.

“There’s a few golf courses around the city that have kind of scrounged up some snow, nothing’s really groomed right now so you can’t really use your nice equipment,” said Peltz. “It’s pretty bare on the actual trails. It’s just been skied over so many times and with the sun hitting it, it’s just melted away.”

In Foxwarren, Man., Snoman Inc. president Alan Butler said snowmobilers haven’t been able to take full advantage of the winter.

“Normally we find that across the province about 50 to 70 per cent of clubs usually have some trails before Christmas, or right around Christmas, and the majority of clubs usually have trails open before the 15th of January, but this year it’s not looking that good,” said Butler. “There’s no trails open south of The Pas. There’s been some clubs out doing some work but haven’t opened any trails just because there simply isn’t enough snow.”

Butler said winters aren’t as predictable as they used to be.

“It’s just what we keep hearing about all the time, is about the changes in climate,” he said.

Some downhill ski areas that make their own snow have opened for business.