On Saturday we were all buzzing with news about perhaps a foot of snow in the forecast for today in some of our ski resort coverage area. While snow is just beginning to fall in the North Carolina Mountains, Wintergreen Resort in Virginia – and Winterplace & Snowshoe Resort in West Virginia are reporting that 1-2" of snow has already fallen!
On Saturday we were hearing the word "FOOT" in the snow forecast, but unless something changes, the foot would only apply to what some of us would like to put on the rears of some weather gurus as most areas will only see 2-5" of snow. There IS more snow being forecasted for isolated spots like down in SALISBURY, North Caroliina (far away from any ski hill) where slightly more snow may fall. We’re not seeing any deep snows in the forecast for any of our ski resorts, but we’ll update you if that changes.
Snowshoe Mountain is forecasted to see 1-2" of snow today, less around Wisp, 4-7" around Wintergreen Resort (the most we’ve seen in a forecast) and from 2-4" of snow is expected today through 7am Monday around Appalachian Ski Mountain, Beech and Sugar. Over towards Haywood County (home to Cataloochee), they have a Winter Weather Advisory posted and calling for 1-2" of snow. Same thing for Madison County (home to Wolf Ridge Ski Areas) where 1-2" of snow is forecasted for today.
Not too far from Wintergreen in Virginia is Basye (home to Bryce Resort) and the forecast there is for nothing more than a sneeze of snow. Ditto for Canaan and Timberline resorts which lie between Snowshoe and Wisp (kind of) and they are only expected to see maybe an inch of snow and only a 20% chance of that happening.
So this system is obviously complex and we’ll update you guys through the day if we see some changes that offer up more significant snowfall.
However, SNOW is snow and we’ll see a shot of snow today and evidently some gusty winds later in the day to boot.
The high for today is likely to be right where we are at right now (low 30s) so as temperatures fall through the day look for the snowmaking crews to crank up the snow mechanisms around the region as soon as they can. That could be very early in the day as steady, falling temperatures are forecasted.
For those resorts that want to do so, snowmaking could be an around the clock kind of thing all day Sunday, Sunday night and all day Monday and Monday night! Due to the nature of the wet weekend and quickly falling temperatures – look for icy conditions particularly later this evening out on the slopes. The 2-4" of natural snow AND snowmaking temps will help to defray the icy conditions, but there is likely to be some out there.
Monday will be sunny and cold, with some flurries early. Snowshoe is looking at a high of 18° and THEY could make snow around the clock if they want to from NOW until sometime on Wednesday when temps are expected to mild up a bit. There’s a chance Snowshoe could make snow all the way through sometime on Thursday.
SkiSoutheast.com / Snowshoe Summit note: We’ve already seen a few emails asking about "iffy" weather forecasted for next Saturday. Guys…JUST YESTERDAY the forecast was that we’d all have a lot of snow falling already today, so SIX DAYS out is much too early to begin being concerned over the weather. The long range forecast for Snowshoe is showing MOSTLY CLOUDY SKIES and a slight chance of rain (20%). That could change to sunny skies in another day or so.
We’ve got a connection with the weather people up there and we’re posting a request for blue skies and temps in the 40s. Count on it.
Some closing observations:
Winterplace Resort is ALREADY reporting an inch of natural snowfall! They also invite you to Stop by the Ski Shop & Save Up To 50% on all items! Snow AND saving money! Sounds like a plan to me!
David Vance up at Canaan Valley updated us this morning that Canaan is expecting little of no snow accumulation today. IT IS SNOWING THERE RIGHT NOW and conditions are groomed. Canaan dropped their slopes opening for DAY SESSIONS ONLY TODAY to 24 trails.
Snowshoe Mountain has already picked up an INCH of snow as of 6:33am this morning.
Wintergreen Resort in Virginia has already reported 1-2" of new snow as of 7:17am. More is falling right now!
App is reporting 6" less base this morning than 24 hours ago. That is an indicator on how much rain fell in the last 24 hours. They are still reporting 72-97" and look great. Wet, but great.
Cataloochee’s Ski report basically quelled ONE rumor that we heard yesterday. There was some scuttlebutt that Cat would not be making anymore snow for the rest of the season. Obviously that report was not accurate as Cataloochee announced that they WILL make snow this evening as temps drop. Sundays are DAY SKIING only days at Cat so look for those guns to fire up right after the day sessions finish up.
Sugar Mountain is not making snow right now – although they are showing cold enough temps to do so. They are hosting the Dick Trundy Memorial Cup race today on Big Red. They have announced that NO SNOWMAKING will occur today. Expect those guns to fire up in force shortly after the day sessions end. Sugar reports a 3" drop in base from 24 hours ago…but they are in great shape today.
Watch the LIVE BIG RED CAM ALL DAY at: Sugar Mountain Ski Resort Webcam
For those that will email and ask… Ski Beech and Wolf reported no drop in base depth from 24 hours ago.
We reported about a week ago that we’d not be covering Sapphire’s ski report anymore due to the fact that you can’t get a ski report out of them. They have not updated any ski resource in more than two weeks and their own website has been AWOL since the 13th.
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