Brendan Shambo is not afraid to admit it: he's worried - and helpless.

After what began as a promising season, with low temperatures and moderate snowfall in December, Shambo's chances for holding his store's annual ice fishing derby are gradually melting away. It's pretty difficult to have an ice fishing derby when there's no ice, and harder still to attract customers when 95 percent of your sales depends on those sportsmen.

“It hurts because right now, there's no ice, so there's no business,” said Shambo, who has owned Screwy Louie's Sport Shop in Fair Haven since 2001.

Shambo is one of several local business owners who remains powerless in the face of Mother Nature. For while many residents may be cheering the balmy, 50-degree temperatures, those who depend on the ice and snow for their livelihoods are feeling the financial sting.

Over the past few weeks, things have been way too quiet for Shambo's liking. The few stragglers that do come in are only looking for odds and ends, and the general lack of customers has forced Shambo to cut the store's operational days from seven to four.

He's concerned that he will have to cancel the Feb. 18 ice fishing derby, as are many of his regular customers. It's a situation he's faced one time before a few years ago, when the derby was a no-go because of similar warm weather.

“Right now, it doesn't look good, but we still have time,” Shambo said, noting that the situation can change with just a storm or two.

Central New York's weather unpredictability is an idea that winter-dependent businesses may not particularly like but have come to accept.

“You've got years of good and years of bad,” said Bob Butler, an employee of Butler Services, of Auburn, which offers snow removal, among other services. “You can't do anything about it. Just go with it.”

Bill Bibbens, owner of Bibbens Sales and Service in Weedsport, is also accustomed to an off year or two but remains cautiously optimistic that this season will be salvageable. A Polaris dealer since 1969, the store usually depends on snowmobile sales for 50 percent or more of its business.

Though some customers order their snowmobiles way before winter, Bibbens has found that more and more people are waiting for the season to arrive before making a purchase. It's a difficult trend to swallow when this year's season has yet to make an appearance. Or rather, it made one (albeit brief), but many people were still hunting in December, Bibbens said.

This past week - which saw temperatures in the 50s - seems to have been the slowest so far, he added.

“Another week of this, and we'll be looking for snow pretty hard,” Bibbens said.

Staff writer Linda Ober can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or linda.ober@lee.net