One More Day of Mild, a Bit of Rain, THEN A BLIZZARD THIS WEEKEND!

First Trax

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WCNC NBC 6 Meteorologist Brad Panovich (AKA wxbrad on the messageboard) has provided his weekly weather video update for our Southeast, Mid Atlantic and North Carolina ski areas a day early.

This one is a good one if you’re like every visitor to this website and love snow!

Click here to watch the Skier’s Forecast for the Southeast and Mid Atlantic! 

The quick summary is that the snowmaking cold air that we need is right now wreaking havoc with Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas as they have declared a state of emergency out there! THAT cold and snowy weather is heading our way and Brad says that we should expect the snowguns to crank up all over the Southeast and Mid Atlantic this weekend.

EVEN COOLER STILL is the fact that he is forecasting 2-4" of snow for the North Carolina Mountains and the Virginias could be SLAMMED with snow that will need to measured in FEET! Brad is saying that everything is in place for what he expects to become a strong Nor’easter by Saturday that will dump snow from the Appalachians, through Virginia into West Virginia and Maryland. He says that a foot of snow for Snowshoe Mountain, Timberline, Canaan and Wisp is not out of the question and if things strengthen a bit…then we could be measuring snow up that way in feet, not inches!

In his video he basically warns of high winds and near blizzard conditions for Saturday night into Sunday with what could be 60-70 mph winds…so we don’t want that, but if the end result is some sweet Powder on Sunday and Monday…then we’ll take it I guess! Nor-Easters have provided our area with some of the best snows over the years and maybe this thing will sit a spin a bit further South for a bit and provide all of our mountains with a substantial snowfall this time around!

BASE DEPTH MELTING…

We’ve been educating you guys a bit on snow melt since we’ve been in the midst of his warm as the hinges of hell period. We documented a few to illustrate how things work and here are some numbers to share:

Appalachian is at 14-28" of base this morning and that is after a drop of 4" more in the last 24 hours and 16" in the last 4 days.

Cataloochee is reporting 16-28" after 4 days and 12" drop in base.

Sugar is reporting a base of 6-24" after 4 days and 14" of drop in base. (Actually they are reporting the same 6-24" that they reported on Tuesday morning which is unusual for them.) Sugar is figting the fight to stay open through these next fews days. It’s going to be close, but so far they have skied for 36 consecutive days and no other ski area in the Southeast or Mid Atlantic can say that.

A QUICK TOUR OF THE REGION…

Since I began talking North Carolina this morning, lets carry on up the eastern seaboard and do a quick tour of the resorts.

Horst and Ryan Locher up at BRYCE RESORT have things hopping and looking okay up in Virginia. They still show the same 5 trails open that they started with.

MASSANUTTEN Resort had not been reporting daily updates of any changes in base depth as they tend to make those tweaks every few days (I wish they would show it daily!), but this morning they have dropped their base depth from yesterday DOWN 14", so we’re betting that was a four day drop. They also dropped 5 trails from their open terrain and now are open with only ONE trail and one lift. They do have tubing open as well.

WINTERGREEN RESORT – It’s 54° there this morning and they are day skiing on 2 trails…and looking forward to the blizzard forecasted to hit this weekend.

SNOWSHOE MOUNTAIN – They are reporting 18 trails on their report, but 17 on the written data so regardless they are doing well. Things are thinning on numerous of their trails, but early and overnight grooming always has things looking pretty good. Snowshoe has not been adjusting their base at all from one day to the next but that has a much to do with the fact that they have WHALES of snow that they can push around overnight.

Laura Parquette writes, "Today will be the final day of the warm spell in the region. Beginning this evening, temperatures will begin to drop and we hope to begin making snow by Thursday night. Plus, natural snow is in the forecast beginning this weekend. Along with the snowmaking & natural snowfall, we’ll be opening the Silver Creek area on Friday. We expect to open up to 9 new trails, night skiing and the tubing park! Today, Snowshoe will be offering 17 trails with three lifts with 5 features in the Spruce Glades Terrain Park. Beginning this weekend, the resort will begin to come alive with Christmas activities and animation sure to please your family. From December 14 through January 1, expect family friendly events in the Big Top and throughout the Village. Also expected in the next few weeks is the ribbon cutting on our three new trails. With Mother Nature’s cooperation, they should be open for skiing and riding before Christmas."

TIMBERLINE RESORT – They are closed…awaiting reopening this weekend, but one look at their live webcam shows that they could be running today. They are saving snow.

CLOSING COMMENTS…mostly about the weather!

So it seems the roller coaster rides on and we’re heading from near record setting warmth to a Nor’Easter that could dump Blizzard like snow across the region. In the meantime, we’ve been getting a "dusting" of emails mostly alluding the Global Warming and the current warmth. I don’t know WHY you guys seem to direct these emails at us, except perhaps it has to do with the fact that I personally don’t support the theories. I support cleaning up Planet Earth as much as possible…but I don’t think any of what we are doing to Planet Earth has to do with the weather we receive back from it.

I have some cool ideas about "cleaning up Planet ‘Southeast’" that I want to share with our readers…but I will save that for another day.

But for those who emailed in the last couple of days claiming the warmth of 2007 as evidence of global warming…let me share some figures with you.

In Boone, on December 12th of 1931 (76 years ago), the high temp was 73° and in 1943 (64 years ago) the mercury fired up to 80° in beautiful downtown Jefferson, NC.

So Mother Earth must have had a fever then and recovered during the 50s and 60s when Global Cooling took place and portions of the High Country experienced nearly a foot of snow every Wednesday for a month or two and banks of snow were over six feet deep all across the region. Cars were lost in snow and many were marked with rebar to make sure that snowplows didn’t hit cars beneath.

We’re just in a frustrating trend people…and this one has snowlovers pulling their hair out! Right now we just need some consistent cold air so the ski areas can make some consistent snow to get all of their terrain open in time for the important Christmas Holiday period.

Saturday looks pretty sweet even down into the Appalachians with highs in the mid 30s and lows around 23°. Sunday will be colder with highs in the 20s and lows in the teens. With those winds expect some sub zero wind chills and white out snows!

Monday and Tuesday looks GREAT for snowmaking with diminished winds and highs in the low to mid 30s and lows in the teens and 20s! Expect conditions to be near-awesome late in the weekend and into next week.

Until Next Time…Send your comments, photos and videos to: [email protected]  

Also visit www.SkiSoutheast.com  for more news from the rest of the ski resorts of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic.

See You On The Slopes!

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