Some of our weather dudes are classifying the rainfall we’ve seen through this morning as a "deluge". Most areas have seen 1" and by late Sunday nearly 2" of rain will have fallen. That is further deteriorating the bases at all of the resorts, but Appalachian, Cataloochee and Sugar still are holding up pretty good.
Here’s a quick look at how things are looking:
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 38° – 54-83" – Still looks snowy white with 100% of the mountain open. They must use whiteners to stay looking so pretty.
Cataloochee Ski Area – 49° – 28-56" – 10 of 14 trails open – Still in good shape with plenty of snow and only a few thin coverage areas and bare spots.
Ski Beech – 46° – 12-40" – 6 of 15 trails open – Looking pretty bad and they could not have timed today being the last day of the season any better. Beech has had a good season and if the rain would let up some they have some fun planned for today to put a cap on things for 2008-2009. There’s quite a lot of thin coverage and large bare areas.
Sugar Mountain – 42° – 18-65" – 100% open but large areas of thin coverage and bare spots are becoming more prevalent. One of Sugar’s staff told us that with yesterday’s rain (which was heavy at times up there) that there were areas where it appeared that they had set up some late season pond skimming fun! Sugar still looks darn good and even though they didn’t have many skiers on the hill yesterday, we spoke with a couple that really enjoyed themselves. (It IS all about perspective!)
This weekend has been a real "wash" for the North Carolina ski areas. However, it’s been the ONLY one like it all season so nobody’s going to complain. After nearly an inch of rain fell in some spots on Saturday, we will see more of the same on Sunday. Sunday looks to be a carbon copy with plenty of clouds, rain and fog. Rainfall totals will likely range from 1/2" to 1" by Sunday afternoon and several of the communities of Western North Carolina will have seen anywhere from 1-2" of rain.
Only three ski areas will continue going forward after Sunday. Those are the usual suspects – App, Cat and Sugar. It looks like a VERY MILD week ahead with some highs reaching into the mid 60s by Wednesday. There will be LOTS of sun Tuesday through Thursday with some showers possible heading into next Friday. The March 20-22nd weekend looks good weatherwise, so there’s at least one more weekend that you guys can hit the slopes if you choose to. Spring skiing is alive and well in the NC mountains!
Be sure to click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com to see what’s happening into the Virginias, Tennessee, and Maryland ski resort areas.
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