Woooo! How awesome is this morning?! Not only is it the Friday before a 3 day weekend, but it’s snowing at many of the ski areas across the region! I am so stoked right now to see how good things look. I’m actually in Charlotte right now though, which is kind of a bummer. I’m working from home today as my car is getting some work done on it. I decided it was time to finally get my brakes fixed. I guess that’s a pretty important thing for driving in snow in the mountains eh? I wish I was in Boone though in the middle of all this snow! I looked at the webcams from the Boone/Banner Elk area this morning and it looks awesome up there! 
<<< The Banner Elk cam is showing a pretty decent amount of snow this morning. I wish I was up there to see it!
Friday the 13th is supposed to be a day of bad luck, but that definitely isn’t the case today. Snow has been falling at the ski areas in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Maryland since last night and we’re seeing some pretty decent totals this morning. Here in North Carolina, we’re getting reports from all over and it looks like from 2-4” of snow has fallen across the Blowing Rock to Beech area. Sugar reported 6” but that is a pretty overzealous number by someone excited to see some snow for a change. We spoke with Captain Griffith of the Sugar Mountain Police Department and he said they picked up 3-4 inches of snow with one-half inch of ice below it. So they are requiring chains or 4WD if you’re headed that way. Here is the complete rundown of snowfall totals so far this morning.
NORTH CAROLINA
Beech – 4”
Sugar – 4”
App – 2-3”
Wolf Ridge – around 1”
Cataloochee – around 1”
WEST VIRGINIA
Canaan/Timberline – 3.4”
Snowshoe – 5”
Winterplace – 5”
MARYLAND
Wisp – 2”
<<< The snow continues to fall at Winterplace this morning on top of the 5 inches they’ve already seen! They are also making snow as well.
The Virginia resorts once again got the shaft when it comes to snow. It doesn’t appear as if they saw any natural snowfall from this system, BUT they are seeing very cold temperatures just like everyone else, allowing them to begin to crank out the manmade snow. .jpg)
<<< The Virginia ski areas might not have seen any natural snow, but the temps are cold enough to make snow as evident from the Massanutten cam this morning.
Speaking of temperatures, it’s been a pretty drastic turnaround in the last 24 hours. Temps out there this morning are bitterly cold for pretty much everyone. For instance, our Sugar Mountain weather station is showing a temp of 8.6 degrees this morning. Yesterday at this same time, it was 36. That’s a drop of 28 degrees! The wind has been pretty brutal too. I think the anemometer on that station is either broken due to the wind or has frozen because of the temps. I say that because it hasn’t been showing any winds at all today, which is definitely not the case. Our nearby Hawksnest station is reporting a wind gust of 38mph earlier this morning. These winds will be pretty gnarly today if you’re out skiing or riding, but they will produce some nice wind loaded spots where the powder will be fairly deep. Bundle up though, because wind chills are in the negatives right now and will barely get into single digits today for a lot of locations!
Temperatures haven’t just done a huge turnaround in North Carolina. Up into Virginia, Wintergreen is showing a reading this morning of 15 degrees. Yesterday morning it was 38.
Our Snowshoe station in West Virginia is showing 7 degrees this morning with a SUSTAINED wind of 21mph. Brrr. The wind chill up there right now is -13 degrees!
This is the just the beginning of what should be a great MLK weekend at the ski areas. It may have been pretty crummy earlier this week, but things are about to do a complete 180 in terms of conditions. Snow is forecasted to continue in North Carolina and West Virginia through today. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Beech and Sugar get another inch or so throughout the day today. The West Virginia resorts are forecasted to get another 2-4 inches of snow today as well.
Temperatures throughout the weekend will also remain chilly. As I’ve been talking about all week, we are looking at around the clock snowmaking for everyone through Sunday night. Beginning from last night, that is going to give everyone around 84 hours of continuous snowmaking. That is awesome! The wind is going to be pretty fierce as well so it’s going to feel even colder. If you’re skiing or riding this weekend, make sure you bundle up and have the proper clothing!
Monday looks to finally see temperatures rise above freezing. It’s also going to be a bluebird day. I will be riding at Beech on Monday and I am seriously stoked right now thinking about how good it’s going to be. It’s looking like Monday might be the best day of skiing and riding in the region so far this season.
I just thought I would remind you guys to head on over to High Country Web Cams to check out live views at the ski areas across the region. We’ve got cameras at just about every ski resort now and we also have some that are crucial for checking out road conditions, mainly here in NC. I’d imagine we’re going to see a TON of traffic this weekend!
I was planning on going over conditions at each resort this morning, but nothing has really changed in terms of open trails…as of yet. They will continue to blast the slopes today and I’m guessing we will see an increase in open terrain tomorrow morning. I’ll let Mike handle that tomorrow and he’ll keep you guys updated throughout the weekend. For now, head on over to the ski report page if you want to see an updated list of open trails, lifts, etc.
Everyone enjoy what should be a great weekend across the region for skiing and snowboarding!
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