It’s Sunday. It doesn’t FEEL like Sunday to me. I spoke and communicated via email with lots of people on Christmas day who had NEVER seen a White Christmas. My sainted mother who lives in Hickory, NC is 77 years old and has seen some decent snows in her time, but she told me yesterday was her first White Christmas since she moved to Hickory 44 years ago. Hickory historians related that yesterday’s snow was the first White christmas since 1967. Hickory record 8" of snow.
We’re seeing some impressive tallies from all across the region and the more impressive snow totals thus far have come from southwest of the mountains here in the High Country of Boone, Banner Elk, etc. For example, while Boone officially reported 4" of snow in the last 24 hours, Asheville reported 9". We have about 6" here at my house (I’m not an official anything…) while some of the more snow-prone areas of West Virginia received only an inch or less of snow thus far. Bear in mind that HEAVY SNOW is in the forecast for the entire area with up to TWO FEET of snow forecasted for the higher elevations of Western North Carolina and another 8" or so into Snowshoe Mountain as the areas in WV. We haven’t heard from Brad Panovich just yet but the NWS is forecasting:
* ACCUMULATIONS…STORM TOTALS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES IN THE VALLEYS and LOCALLY UP TO TWO FEET IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS.
and here are some other numbers from around the area:
Cataloochee Ski – 11"
Ober Gatlinburg – 8"
Wolf Ridge Resort – 8"
Sapphire Valley – 7.1"
Appalachian Ski – 6"
Beech Mountain – 5"
Sugar Mountain – 5"
Wintergreen – 1-2"
Snowshoe Mountain – 1"
Canaan Valley – .4" (that’s point 4")
The Homestead – 1"
Bryce Resort – .1" (that’s point 1")
Massanutten – Trace
Wisp – NO SNOW
We’re hearing about reports of airport closures around the Northeast and our own flights to Newark were cancelled late last night so we’re now scrambling to get to Canada. Late last night we were talking with some of Snowshoe’s people and they are nearly 100% booked up this week, but this kind of crazy storm could have an impact on reservations across the region. We’ll update you as we can later today on the storm and how things are looking.
Be sure to check the road conditions content on the site as right now ALL ROADS are doable with 4wd.
We’ll report this morning by snow totals from highest to lowest reported:
Cataloochee Ski Area – 18° – 11" of new snow and 38" on the season! Cataloochee always posts their snow report for each day actually the NIGHT prior and they reported 11" of snow last night! So there’s more than that this morning. We’ll fill ya in later. The official CoCoRaHs reporter over there is a ridge over and recorded 8" this morning, so that 11" at Cat is definately a do-able number! Cat will play on a reported POWDER conditions on all 16 trails and snowtubing as well!
Ober Gatlinburg – 18° – 8" of new snow! – I’m so tickled for the guys and gals over at Ober. Man they’ve been starved for really significant snowfall not only this season, but in the last few seasons. Of course they had a couple of nice, deep snowfalls last year when everyone did. However EIGHT INCHES of snow will create some nice powder on some of those cool trails at the Smoky Mountain ski resort. Ober is reporting that they made snow overnight, packed powder conditions on 7 of 9 trails, snow tubing and ice skating as well!
Wolf Ridge Ski Resort – 21° – 8" of new snow! 44" on the season! Wolf will ski powder today on 16 of 20 trails and while they are making snow they are doing so only on unopened trails. Tubing is open as well!
Sapphire Valley – 20° – 7.1" of new snow! How often do we see Sapphire ranking this high on the snowfall totals? This takes them to 12.5" on the season and they’re open today for both trails and snow tubing! The TRANSYLVANIA COUNTY (I just like mentioning that) is looking pretty this morning!
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 16° – 6" of new snow! – App’s weather station isn’t reporting accurately as some people have emailed us to point out. Don’t fret, we have you covered. It was a cold 16° overnight as 5.5" of new snow fell according to the CoCoRaHs reporting at the top of the mountain. That 6" reported at App makes it 34.5" on the season and we’re still in December! App will ride for day and night sessions on all 12 trails, all three terrain parks and ice skating to boot.
Beech Mountain Resort – 10° – 5" of new snow and 4.5" reported by Gil Adams the CoCoRaHs reported for Beech. That takes them to 53" on the season with most all of it coming in December! How often do we see Sapphire Valley top Beech for snowfall in a 24 hour period? That’s rare. More snow is forecasted. Beech is 100% open with POWDER skiing today on all 15 trails and ice skating.
Sugar Mountain Resort – 10° – 5" of reported snow! (I’m so proud!) Sugar is 100% open for powder skiing. While several ski areas that we’ve already covered on this report did NOT make snow last night, Sugar never misses an opportunity to lay down base and some riders will be complaining today, but we’ll all be reminded of how smart this was when and if things go south a little in January and Sugar still has a good base. Wear your goggles and enjoy the day. By the way, NASTAR will be held daily beginning Sunday, December 26, 2010 through Sunday January 2, 2011 at noon on Big Red.
Wintergreen Resort – 14.3° – 1 to 2" of new snow and 4" on the season. They made snow overnight and will play on 25 of 26 trails, terrain parks and snow tubing!
PHOTO
The Homestead Resort – 25° – 1" of new snow and 7.5" on the season. They are open on Groomed conditions on 8 of 10 trails and tubing. They also offer MINI-Snowmobiles for your riding pleasure.
Snowshoe Mountain – 10° – 1" of new snow and 53" on the season. Snowshoe is playing on 52 trails today, terrain parks, snow tubing, snowmobiling and more! They are expecting a ton of snow over the next 48 hours!
Winterplace Resort – 18° – 1" of new snow and 25" on the season. They are open with 24 of 28 trails, snow tubing and terrain parks.
Canaan Valley – 14° – .4" (point 4) of new snow – 63.6" on the season. Canaan is open with packed powder conditions on all 39 trails, terrain parks and ice skating are ALL open!
Timberline Resort – 14° – .4" (point 4) of new snow – 63.6" on the season. They are operating on 32 of 38 trails and terrain parks are open as well as 27+ km of backcountry terrain.
Bryce Resort – 32° – point 1" (.1") of new snow – Bryce isn’t reporting it but we will because the snow-starved resort has now seen 2" of natural snow on the season. It has been crazy how all of these December snows have hit north and south of them but left the Shenandoah resort pretty snowless this season. They report NO snowmaking either and they’re open with 7 of 8 trails and snow tubing as well.
Massanutten Resort – 24° – They’re making snow on Southern Comfort, Geronimo, Upper Mac Attack and Diamond Jim – otherwise you’re not going to have to worry about the guns blasting today. They reported only a TRACE of snow from this system and 4" on the season to date. Weird! They are 100% open with all 14 trails of corduroy conditions and both terrain parks and 8 lanes on the tubing park.
Wisp Resort – 16° – No new snow – 56" on the season. They are 100% open with 32 trails, snow tubing on one of – if not THE best snowtubing park on the planet, terrain parks and ice skating – and mountain coaster ALL open!
That’s it for today. Enjoy your White Christmas! If you can’t be with us watch the LIVE webcams. Send your comments to [email protected] or [email protected]
We also invite you visit our sister websites:
www.HighCountryWebCams.com for dozens of LIVE CAMS around the region.
www.HighCountryWeather.com for all the best forecasts for the ski resorts.