FRIGHTFUL START FOR SKIERS.(SPORTS)

Byline: TONY CHAMBERLAIN Boston Globe

The vice president of a large ski company commented privately not long ago: ``This is getting scary.''

Of course, he was talking about the current lack of snowpack in the northern mountains.

Nothing new about warm autumns, or December meltdowns. Nothing new about an upper air pattern that blocks the cold Arctic air out while the warm soup spreads from the South all across New England ... and sits for weeks.

We've seen this before. But, what if this is new?

What if there is a permanent warming going on? So far as anyone can tell amid all the political wrangling about global warming, no one really knows. Or at least no one has …