North Carolina Resorts Weather Friday’s Rains and Now Look to the Cold that is Coming in!

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One look at the live cams and you can tell how much damage 1-3” of rain did yesterday. One word, “ouch” comes to mind. Yes, Virginia, there IS still snow on the slopes, but the slopes definitely took a hit. Appalachian Ski Mountain dropped their base depth report 6-10” in the last 24 hours. It was that kind of day on Friday.

Appalachian looks worn this morning, but they are open and with what should be groomed conditions on five trails.

Cataloochee looks like they didn’t get quite the amount of rain over that way. Their live cam shows pretty decent side to side coverage. They only reported a 2” drop in base and five trails open.

Hawksnest Resort actually closed on Friday. Their phone line told the story when it said, “The weather has won today and until we get some cold, the tubing hill is closed.” Their live cam is not broadcasting images, but we are able to log into it and see the conditions. They are fighting the weather and need some snowmaking. They ARE open for skiing and snowboarding today, but no tubing.

Ski Beech is reporting some bare areas and five trails open. Expect decent side to side coverage and a fair amount of good skiable terrain. We’re seeing heavy fog this morning, but that will lift as the skies turn sunny in just a bit.

Sugar Mountain actually looks pretty decent this morning. Sugar reported an 8” drop in base and we are seeing a few bare spots and some thin coverage areas, but all in all Sugar looks ready for a good day.

We like Wolf Ridge’s statement today, “Don’t be afraid of the big bad Wolf.” Cute. There cameras show some sidelines creeping in, but fairly good side to side coverage on the three slopes that they have open today.

To The Weather – That IS the number one question of the last 24 hours. We had 427 emails in the last 24 hours and I think that maybe three or four were not related to the weather. The best way to sum it up is to say, we’re stuck with what we have right now on the slopes until Christmas night. There IS an outside shot at some snowmaking on Saturday and Sunday night as temps looks like they might drop back to 30-32° in some areas, and we can keep those pesky inversions from happening then the higher elevations may be able to do some snowmaking. Stay tuned to the updates and we’ll tell you when the guns crank up!

The forecast is for some freezing rain to snow mix on Christmas Day, and the resorts should be making snow Monday night (Christmas night) as temps kick back to 28°. Tuesday and Wednesday look perfect with SNOW in the forecast for Tuesday and highs in the 32° range and lows around 20°. That’s when things will look very sweet! Wednesday is cold with highs in the mid to upper 30s and lows around 22° Wednesday night – MORE SNOWMAKING TEMPS!

So play with what we have, enjoy some decent conditions at a few of the resorts; do your last minute shopping at the shops and ski and snowboard shops; and then enjoy the wintry weather coming in on Christmas Day and Tuesday. Things should be MUCH improved on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

THINK COLD AND SNOW!!!

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For more information about the ski resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic visit www.SkiSoutheast.com

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