This time of year even beachcombers get snow envy

You feel stupid singing along to "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" when you are strolling through the market shops of Charleston, S.C., in your shirtsleeves.

No matter how many twinkling lights you put on a palm tree, it just isn't going to be a Christmas tree. Santa, with his fur, looks uncomfortable in this city where an unusually warm, 80-degree weekend had well-dressed women opting for strapless gowns.

Giddy with joy (or was it heat stroke?), my wife and I soaked up the sun and cooling ocean breeze during a long-weekend getaway to Charleston. We'd smile and tell strangers that we came from Chicago -- where folks who finally found enough salt to melt the ice were digging out from another snowfall.

The response from Southerners was universal: "I wish we'd get some snow."

Many of those afflicted with a sudden bout of snow coveting were transplants from the North, such as the Pennsylvanian who gave us our mule-drawn carriage tour. They know snow and its flaws, but they still want a splash of white for Christmas.

Even a native from Florence, S.C., bemoaned the lack of snow. The occasional ice storm won't do, he added. He wants a white Christmas like those portrayed in books, movies and songs.

"By strange coincidence, I was talking to my wife yesterday about the song 'Dreaming of a White Christmas,' and saying how that doesn't mean much for folks in the southern half of the U.S.," e-mails James R. Angel, Illinois State Climatologist.

Chicago now boasts a snow cover that even inspires envy in other northerners.

"I'm jealous," says David Robinson, New Jersey state climatologist and renowned climate researcher from Rutgers University. "We've got a half an inch of sleet here."

Every state (even Hawaii, Florida and Texas) has gotten snow at some time. But if Christmas had been Monday, poor Southerners would have been in the 43 percent of the nation without snow -- according to maps put out by the National Weather Service's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center.

The current swath of the snow blanket is a tad surprising. You might not appreciate this if your back still is sore from shoveling, but snow is in a slump.

"Snow cover in the north is on decline," says Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center. While garnering more attention for his research on global warming matters such as the melting of Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf, Scambos says maps of snow during the past 40 years show a decline across the entire northern hemisphere.

While snow and global warming are complicated, the easy answer is that less snow means a warmer earth. Without snow cover to reflect it, sunlight heats dark, wet land, Scambos says.

"If we were to suddenly lose snow, the earth would absorb that energy from the sun and heat up," explains Robinson, whose studies show that our spring snow cover is disappearing quicker than it did a generation ago.

Some states depend on snow for their ski industries. They count on snow melt to replenish their water supplies and irrigate their crops.

A blanket of snow insulates plants, animals and insects from harsh temperatures, while hiding litter and dog droppings, Angel adds.

Numbers don't tell the entire story.

"We had an 18-inch snowfall in New Jersey two years ago. It fell on a Saturday night and it was gone by Thursday," says Robinson.

So we should be glad that we have this lingering snow?

"Absolutely," Robinson says, listing snow benefits from curbing global warming to replenishing water supplies to affecting storm tracks.

"You can also talk about it in terms of entertainment," Robinson says, expressing a hankering for cross-country skiing. "And there is always the aesthetics. … A white Christmas -- people have this ingrained in their souls."

Angel credits the recent 7.3 inches of snow in Champaign for his sons (ages 18 and 22) spending a rare night home.

"We got to eat together and decorated the tree," Angel says.

So, as you brace for the next couple of inches of snow, be grateful for all that snow gives us, and know that beachcombers in South Carolina envy you.