The expected milder temperatures and moderate rain have made it to the region. As of 7:45am it is:
45° at Beech Mountain
47° at Sugar Mountain
49° at Seven Devils
51° at Cataloochee
41° at Appalachian Ski Mountain
48° at Sapphire Valley
45° at Wolf Ridge
46° at Bryce Resort
45° at Massanutten Resort
43° at The Homestead
42° at Wintergreen Resort
46° at Canaan Valley
46° at Timberline Resort
43° at Snowshoe Mountain
48° at Winterplace Resort
39° at Wisp Resort
54° at Ober Gatlinburg
The coldest spot in the region at 8am was Wisp Resort and the mildest was at Ober Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with a 54° reading. Moderate to heavy rain is widespread across the region.
Sugar Mountain is the only ski area open and they are reporting a 3-15" base of wet granular conditions. Got to hand it to them, that is accurate reporting! I’ll bet there are some hard-core "takers" that will surf the two trails today!
We have FLASH FLOOD WATCHES in some areas of the mountains. Many of the mountain communities of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic NEED rain and some of those communities may see as much as 2-4" of it between now and Wednesday. That’s not great news for the ski areas that made a bunch of snow during this past weekend’s cold blast. So let’s hope that the rain falls where it is most needed and stays away from the ski areas that have all put down a good base at this point.
We found Brad Panovich’s newest forecast in our SPAM folder so it’s already old news, but we’ll be sharing those with you guys now that we’re moving from pre-season to ski and snowboarding season. The gist of most forecasts is that we can expect some heavy rain today and moreso this evening and a thunder storm is not out of the question. The good news is that temperatures will fall sharply late tonight changing any leftover precip to snow showers and flurries into Wednesday morning.
SIGNIFICANT SNOW MAY FALL!!!
We’re not seeing this in most of the forecasts that we checked this morning, however the NWS is forecasting some significant SNOW for some portions of our coverage area on the backside of this rain event. Here’s the summary:
Tonight – 1-2" of SNOW is possible around Snowshoe Mountain with new snow accumulation on Wednesday of 3-5" of snow. So they could see as much as 7" of snow by late Wednesday!
Wisp Resort in Garrett County, Maryland could see as much 1-2" tonight and another 1-3" on Wednesday for perhaps 5" of snow.
Winterplace Resort isn’t expected to get more than perhaps a dusting tonight but 1-3" of snow on Wednesday.
This particular snow event seems to be isolated to the northern tier of our ski community coverage area from Winterplace north. The North Carolina mountains are expecting only a dusting of snow this evening and maybe an inch of snow Wednesday and that may be only towards the NC/TN line.
THE GREAT NEWS IS PERHAPS THE BEST/LONGEST COLD SNAP SO FAR
The longrange forecast through December 9th looks for plenty of cold temps to make snow for most every ski community with some around-the-clock snowmaking for many resorts. That is GREAT NEWS as we now transition to December. All of the ski resorts will be focusing on building base depths on their most important slopes and terrain and as long as the weather holds we’ll see them migrate to getting all of their slopes open as we near the Holidays ahead/
Here’s the latest forecast…
NC SKI AREA FORECAST
Tuesday: Hi 55 Lo 34 – Heavy Rain changing to snow late
Wednesday: Hi 34 Lo 19 – Cloudy AM Gusty winds then clearing
Thursday: Hi 38 Lo 24 – Sunny
Friday: Hi 40 Lo 23 – Colder than normal temps and clear
Saturday: Hi 44 Lo 26 – Partly Cloudy with some flurries late
Sunday: Hi 41 Lo 27 – Mostly Cloudy with some light snow/mix
Monday: Hi 38 Lo 26 – Variably Cloudy
Past that looks plenty cold enough to make snow each night through December 9th!
WV SKI AREA FORECAST
Tuesday: Hi 48 Lo 27 – Heavy Rain changing to snow late
Wednesday: Hi 26 Lo 14 – Cloudy AM Gusty winds with snow mix
Thursday: Hi 25 Lo 18 – Some light snow
Friday: Hi 32 Lo 21 – Colder than normal temps and clear
Saturday: Hi 34 Lo 24 – Chance of snow/mix
Sunday: Hi 36 Lo 24 – Mostly Cloudy with some light snow
Monday: Hi 35 Lo 22 – Chance of snow showers
Past that looks plenty cold enough to make snow each night through December 9th with some around the clock snowmaking opportunities.
VA SKI AREA FORECAST
Tuesday: Hi 57 Lo 48 – Heavy Rain
Wednesday: Hi 50 Lo 25 – Cloudy AM Gusty winds with some rain
Thursday: Hi 44 Lo 27 – Clear
Friday: Hi 46 Lo 24 – Colder than normal temps and clear
Saturday: Hi 47 Lo 28 – Partly Cloudy
Sunday: Hi 48 Lo 26 – Mostly Cloudy with some light rain
Monday: Hi 46 Lo 27 – Partly cloudy
Past that looks plenty cold enough to make snow each night through December 9th!
THINK COLD! THINK SNOW!
We urge you to visit:
www.HighCountryWebCams.com
www.HighCountryWeather.com
www.SkiSoutheast.com
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