As I looked out of my front window this morning at 6:30am I saw frost. It felt cold walking out to my truck. I climbed inside and looked at the outside temperature reading and saw 30° and I immediately "knew" that Sugar, Cataloochee and Snowshoe were making snow. I quickly began adjusting my morning routine in my head. I thought of turning left up highway 105 so that I could head up to Sugar with my brand new HD video camera and get some great footage. I began game planning to get a rep out on the slopes for opening day that was certain to be any day now.
Instead, I headed to my office and immediately turned my monitor on and clicked over to the webcams and….
NOTHING.
(Those darn pesky inversions!)
While it was cold enough to make snow here at my office (at 29°) it was 39° atop both Sugar and Beech Mountain. Same story for Cataloochee. One look at the live camera and there was nothing but green grass.
One look at the long-range forecast that has changed IMMENSELY in the 24 hours and there doesn’t seem to be any snowmaking temps other than for ONE NIGHT (Friday night) in the next several days for most of the ski areas in our coverage area. Highs are forecasted to be in the 50s and 60s through AT LEAST the middle of next week, and lows after the cold Friday night are forecasted to be in the low 40s.
Keep reminding yourselves that it is JUST November 4th. COLD and SNOW will come. The truth is we are working our rears off getting everything in place with all of our advertisers and plugging content in, so if things don’t happen for another week or two, that’s okay with our staff.
Before you diehard snow enthusiasts start ragging on me, just know that we’ve been in touch with a lot of the staffers at various ski areas and most of them welcome another couple of weeks to get prepared. (We’re in the same mode.)
Sources close to Sugar have shared that they are waiting on the next round of consistent temperatures. If the forecast had held that was posted on Tuesday via RaysWeather.com, then Sugar and Cat would have been able to make snow Tuesday night and again Thursday and Friday. That would have prompted one or both of those resorts to open. It didn’t happen, so it looks like we’re in a holding pattern again for a few days yet.
KEEP THINKING COLD AND SNOW and it will come.
SNOWSHOE MOUNTAIN MADE SNOW LAST NIGHT AND THIS MORNING
Communications guru, Laura Parquette wrote me this morning. She stated, "The guns were still whirling away last night. We got in a good 12 hours and should be able to make for another hour or two (this morning). It looks like we may miss tonight—some humid air will probably put our wet bulb too high—but tomorrow night and Friday look good right now. We are seeing some flakes in the forecast for tomorrow, which will be a perfect coating on everything we’ve made!
Yesterday was a beautiful fall day on the mountain, today it’s a winter wonderland! 20 days to go until OPENING!"
(She too added, "THINK SNOW".)
You KNOW we will Laura. You know we will.
Stay tuned for more updates as we are loading more content each day, all day. We’re up to TWENTY TWO VACATIONS to give away this season and we’ll get those online within the next week!)
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