Good Monday Morning! Murphy’s Law seems to be rearing its ugly head this morning as we are having a myriad of weird server and database problems, (None of which are affecting our websites) that have burned up my morning thus far.
Therefore, I’m going to need to get right to the news that I need to share and then we’ll try to do another update a bit later with some comments about the emails we received this weekend, etc.
Check the SLOPE REPORT page for all the details and conditions.
The news of this morning is basically that all of the resorts that are in West Virginia and Maryland (and portions of Virginia) are all celebrating MORE SNOW THIS AM!!! Resorts south into North Carolina and Tennessee are sick and tired of hearing about Meteorologist Matthew East’s "split flow pattern"!!!
Matthew sent his newest skier’s forecast for the week ahead and you can view that video by clicking here!
You don’t have to BE a meteorologist to see how this split flow pattern is playing things out around the Southeast and Mid Atlantic’s ski resorts. One quick glance at our SLOPE CONDITIONS reports for the region gives you all the ingredients you need to know to see that areas into the Virginias and Maryland are simply colder and getting snow. Areas further south are borderline between some light rain and with more wintry precip coming all week!
For example, have a look at this morning’s low temps at some of the ski areas:
Wisp 14°
Massanutten 15°
Wintergreen 18°
Canaan Valley 19°
Timberline 19°
Snowshoe 19°
Winterplace 28°
Appalachian 30°
Ski Beech 30°
Cataloochee 34°
Ober Gatlingburg 37°
Can’t you almost SEE the line running between the upper tier of West Virginia & Maryland (where they are in the teens) and those further south?
That line of temperatures is also the line where SNOW is falling right now north of it and light drizzle is falling southward.
1-2" of snow is expected today at Snowshoe, Wisp, Canaan and Timberline with maybe a little snow around Massanutten and Wintergreen in Virginia. Winterplace could see a little as well.
Another inch or so is expected at those same areas TONIGHT…and then the BIG SNOWS COME!!! You read that correctly! All those mentioned above should see more accummulating snow falling Tuesday with perhaps 3-5" MORE SNOW falling. More snow – yes MORE – is forecasted for Wednesday, Wednesday night, Thursday, Thursday night and Friday. God only KNOWS how much they will all have by the end of the week!
Conditions will be somewhere in the EPIC range for all of those ski areas are not only will they HOG all the snow, they are hogging all of the coldest temps. Lows every night will be in the teens and 20s.
If you have not made a trip up to ski yet this season – what the HECK are you thinking?!?!
FOR THE REST OF THE SOUTHEAST SKI AREAS…
The short synopsis of conditions around the southern tier of ski areas (those into portions of Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina) is that things are good out there on the slopes; there will continue to be good bases on the slopes and the coming weekend should be another great one. That is the quick synopsis.
The detailed look pretty much says that it will be a somewhat wet, wild and woolly week of weather that will make for some granular conditions and perhaps a couple of ski areas that are not as strong with their base depths right now (Sapphire and Ski Beech) may see a few thin coverage areas popping up here and there by Wednesday or Thursday.
The rest are in good shape to handle the little bit of rain that is forecasted for today, tonight, Tuesday and Tuesday night. About an inch of rain is forecasted for the entire period from now through Wednesday 1pm, so this is not a big rain event. Most days will see perhaps a light drizzle here and there, so if you’re already AT your favorite hill, go play…you’ll have a good time.
Highs will be in the low 40s today through Wednesday (about average) and the lows will be about 10-15 degrees warmer than normal tonight and Tuesday night (so no snowmaking).
Right now, the cold air looks like it is only slightly north of us, which means that areas north of our mountains are already seeing snow and will continue to through the next day. However, by Wednesday night it looks like our North Carolina mountains will get some chances of wintry precip that might begin as snow and could be freezing rain. The projected low for Wednesday night around most of the Western North Carolina mountains is around 29° so a notch or so colder and we may see all snow. A notch the other way and it could be a bit more rain.
THURSDAY LOOKS BEAUTIFUL with highs around 40° and lows in the NORMAL FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR – 21° range. That means that our resorts will make snow Thursday night. That is particularly good news for the resorts that may need it a little more than the others.
FRIDAY IS LOOKING SNOWY! Colder air is heading into the mountains as that "split flow pattern" that Meteorologist Matthew East has been talking about dips a bit and allows for cold enough air into our area to make for some chances for snow. Highs are forecasted to be in the low to mid 30s with Friday night lows in the teens. (More great snowmaking!)
Saturday should be sweet with cold sunny days and snowmaking lows overnight.
So the HINT here is that conditions will be VERY, VERY NICE for the coming weekend at ALL of the North Carolina ski resorts, so if you’ve been trying to time a great weekend to come up, this looks to be a good one!
Go dodge a few raindrops, make some turns and have a great day!
NOW YOU KNOW WHY THE SKI AREAS IN THE SOUTHERN TIER ARE TIRED OF THIS SEASON’S PATTERN!!! If there’s anyone out there in weather land who knows how to kick start or blow up that "split flow" pattern and get some colder air filtering more southward – get to it!
In closing, ski conditions will be GREAT for this coming weekend, EPIC into the WV and MD ski areas, so things will be nice no matter which ski area you hit. Those into WV and Maryland will be sweet all week with only a slight chance of a period of less than perfect weather on Wednesday (early).
Until Next time…
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