Brian Nearing reports in the Albany Times Union that a report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the University of Colorado says New York's ski resort seasons could be half as long by 2050 because of global warming. Natural snowfall will decline, the report says, and warming temperatures will make it more difficult to manufacture fake snow. Windham Mountain, the report says, could go from a just over 44-day season in 2011, to 20 days in 2050 if current weather trends continue. Likewise, Hunter Mountain could plummet from 80 days in 2011 to 38 days at mid-century. "In the past, we would make snow on the main trails and move on, occasionally touching up where need be," said Scott Brandi, president of Ski Areas of New York Inc., a trade association representing about 35 of the state's largest ski areas. "These days it seems we are forever having to go back to hit trails we finished again and again, not to touch up but in some cases to start all over again." Short bursts of warm weather are more likely according to the report, such as the 60 degree spurt last weekend. Walter Kirsch, owner of the Pine Ridge Cross-Country Ski Center in Rensselaer County, said that warmth melted all his snow cover and, "we lost the Martin Luther King weekend, which is our biggest weekend of the year." Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.