Near Zero Temperatures Return after a One Day Pause! Up to 16 inches of Snow Could Falls as Well!

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Brad’s Forecasting 4-6" more snow for the NC Mountains (Higher Amounts in some locations) and 10-16" into West Virginia.

On Thursday I wrote about the one day "mild up" that many around the area spoke of on Wednesday when things just felt so much warmer even though the high temperature that day in Banner Elk was 14°. It felt so much "warmer" because the 20-25 mph winds had subsided.

Then on Thursday the morning temperatures were in the 5-14° range across much of our ski coverage area and we saw forecasts that stated that we were to see some low to mid 20s for highs. Man was Thursday a day to ski or ride! No winds, great snow, and temperatures that actually swelled to 32° in some mountain communities of the Southeast. Snow began to fall again into West Virginia and then we began receiving reports of snow falling in Rock Hill, South Carolina before it began falling here in the mountains of Western North Carolina around 1pm or so. There were intermittent snow flurries and showers in the higher elevations and by nightfall the roads began to be blanketed by a nice, light powdery snow.

I’m at it early this morning as today is a travel day for me. I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to travel from one snow prone area to yet another even more snow prone area. In fact, chances are that I will be driving through snow most of my entire trip up I81, I77, I64 and Hwy 219 on my way to an annual Media weekend that Snowshoe Mountain hosts. I’ll be one of a couple of internet media peeps hanging with a mostly television crowd of representatives who are integral in helping Snowshoe and the rest of the ski areas around here spread their snowy message to the masses within a 10-12 state area. I gotten to watch Meteorologists Paul Goodloe’s (The Weather Channel) young boy grow one year at a time although I don’t think Paul or Jim Cantore will be at Snowshoe this weekend.

One meteorologist who will be there is Central Pennsylvania’s Joe Murgo who works for WTAJ as Chief Meteorologist. By the way it is 20° in Altoona this morning at 6:20am. Thanks to Snowshoe and these three day weekend Media Events I’ve gotten to know Joe, his wife Mara and two daughters Kristen and Rebecca.

Speaking of a "good Joe" I’m hoping to hang a bit with another buddy, Joe Stevens who actually got me involved with Snowshoe’s marketing back when he served as the Director of Communications head. Joe now co-own’s The Media Center in Charleston, West Virginia which works to assist partners in managing their corporate message to the media world and beyond. Joe is a weekly columnist for SkiSoutheast.com and also serves as a spokesman for the West Virginia Ski Areas Association.

Anyway there’s a bunch of great television peeps converging on Pocahontas County today and if I took a moment to mention the dozen or so who are braving the snowy forecast to be there I’d not get out of town until lunchtime. That can’t happen since it will be a slower than normal drive with the snow.

So back to wrapping up this morning’s "BLOG".

The winds have reappeared. Yuck. …and the colder temps have as well! It might be 20° in Altoona, PA but it’s -1° at Beech Mountain and most of the mountaintops this morning. I just visited Laura Parquette’s posting of Snowshoe’s data at 6:39am this morning and it’s 2° there. (Another 3" of snow fell at The Shoe on Thursday.) Did I mention that our media reps get to go hang out with Snowshoe’s annual College Winter Break crowd?! That is always a fun weekend.

Back to the update…

Highs today will not get out of the 0-10° range today at most ski areas and winds will be kicking again in the 20-30 mph range and that will create some dangerous wind chills. Ditto that forecast for Saturday. (I’m wondering if Beech Mountain Resort will even ALLOW the bathing beauty contest to "come off" on Saturday. (Get your minds out of the gutter. I said "contest" to come off – not the bathing suits!)

Maybe they’ll move that inside. We’ll check on that for you. Skin exposed to those kinds of extreme temps for even a short run down the slope is not good. We’ll see.

Snow showers and flurries will continue through Saturday night with an additional dusting to 4" expected by Sunday morning around the mountains of North Carolina with another 6-14" of snow forecasted for the West Virginia mountains. WV has already seen nearly three feet of snow since January 1 and they may see another foot. Woah!

With the possibility of another 4" in NC, that should make for about 5-10" in the NC mountains and the 10" to 16" that Meteorologist Brad Panovich forecasted on Wednesday night.

We got a couple of emails from weather gurus who said that Brad’s forecast was wrong and that his was the only one calling for that kind of snow. Looks like our guy Brad is going to nail this one again. Andrea McIntyre of my staff will post Brad’s newest Skier’s Forecast video around 9:30am so look for his latest to see his updated take on how this weekend’s weather will look. The National Weather Service is forecasting snow for the entire weekend up where I’m headed and even though it will be windy, there should be a lot of powder skiing and snowboarding happening!

If you’re headed up to YOUR favorite ski area (which you SHOULD BE) just layer up, get protection for your head, face and hands and enjoy the heck out of some of the best ski and riding conditions in some time around these parts. I’ve seen Brad’s forecast and I don’t think I’ve ever heard him use the term "Southeast Powder" EVER prior to this season and he’s using it time and again lately! He’s talking another 48 hours of powder conditions for us beginning in earnest later on Friday and through the weekend!

Brad has NOT moved off his forecast of 10-16" of snow for portions of the Southeast’s ski areas (depending on the state). Check out his video and then grab your gear, load the darn SUV up and get yourself to these awesome conditions. So what, it will be a bit windy but you don’t want to miss these snowy opportunities!

That’s it for today. I’m throwing some gear of my own in the car and heading on the road.

Check out the Snow Report at https://www.skisoutheast.com/skireports.php  and please send us you favorite ski photos, ski videos, trip reports and comments to [email protected]  

Until Next Time…

SSAA: 0 for 41/saphopenNOT/bryce7EIGHT/can3839+nightNOW/timb3034/ ///self 40/41
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