Bouquet/Barb: This weird winter has wreaked havoc on the annual pleasures and activities the Upper Peninsula developed to get through the usual cold, snowy months.

The UP200 and the CopperDog dog sled races were canceled for lack of snow, though Marquette did have a Festival of the Sled Dog on Feb. 17.

The Continental Cup ski jumping tournament at Giant Pine Mountain on Feb. 23-24-25 had to make snow for the landing area and then lost a day of both practice and competition.

Now the Kites Over Awesome Lake Antoine, or KOALA, event that had been slated for next week is called off due to unstable ice, including wide cracks and ice shoves on shore.

It’s not just the U.P., either. The American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wis., on Feb. 24 was reduced to marking its 50th anniversary as North America’s largest nordic skiing race by having participants do laps around a 2-kilometer loop course over manufactured snow.

Ice fishing curtailed. Snowmobiling all but impossible. Cross-country skiing, snowshoeing difficult.

As we reach March — the meteorological start to spring — it’s safe to say this officially is a lost winter.

While some people likely welcomed the mild temperatures, a fair number of U.P. and northern Wisconsin businesses that count on people coming here for winter recreation opportunities on the snow and ice have taken a beating. Some may not be able to survive.

Blame El Nino? Sure. But experts say this has been an extremely warm and dry winter for the region even by El Nino-year standards. The Wisconsin cities of Milwaukee and Madison, for example, both set new records Tuesday for the highest temperature ever recorded in February and the highest temperature reached during the meteorological winter that extends from Dec. 1 to the end of February.

So Bouquets to those who organize these winter events, counting on the weather to cooperate so the public can get out and enjoy themselves. Let’s hope they have better conditions to work with next year.

And Barbs to El Nino — and the possibility this might be a climate shift that bodes poorly for future winter fun in the U.P. and northern Wisconsin.