Sunday Southeast notes and comments

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Sunday Southeast notes and comments — For those of you who hate skiing or riding when the snowguns are firing snow at you…this is YOUR kind of days coming from now through Wednesday. Temperatures will be in the 50s during the day (perhaps the mid-to-upper 50s) and overnight lows will be in the 30-35° range with sunny skies Sunday and Monday. The slopes are covered in deep, packed snow and conditions will be great for skiing and riding at your favorite resort.

Lots of photos to share with you! – You guys must have really enjoyed your day on the slopes on Saturday because we received the second highest total of images sent in on the season…over the 24 hours. We’ve chosen the best ones and they will be going up later this morning. Please send your favs from today…and if any of you are at Sugar today for the Edge of the World Snowboarding Comp…please send us some good jumps and tricks.

The High Country Jr. Race Series(HCRS) – Has held two races this year,(Beech and Hawksnest) and so far the kids are burning up the slopes. The ages run from 4-18 and the racers come from all over the southeast. This is a development league that helps introduce kids to ski racing. But don’t let that fool you, these are some of the hottest kid skiers around. Their next race si at App Mnt on 2/13. For more info, contact the French-Swiss Ski college at App Ski Mtn. SkiNC Note: We are working to get them to send us race results and photos and we’ll share them with you asap!

Resort notes and comments

The Edge of the World snowboard competition begins around noon at Sugar Mountain today. If you are participating, be sure to sign up before 10am on the 3rd floor of the main lodge building. SkiNC.com is sponsoring two of today’s participants. Lindsea Lumpkin, the seven year old snowboarding phenom, and Patrick Kidda of Atlanta, Georgia. If you out there…do a few screams for us…as I’ll be out taking in a little horseback riding today. Expect temperatures in the FIFTIES at Sugar today, so take your sunscreen!

The kids (and moms) will like it at Sugar today as well because it’s Sugar Bear’s Birthday. Cake and ice cream with Sugar Bear and all his friends at noon today.

Wintergreen Resort – Is Welcoming College race teams today! Their is a Freestyle Boarder Cross competition in the terrain park on Sunday. If you’re up there today…get us some photos!

Winterplace Resort – Seems like the theme of today’s stories is racing! Winterplace is no exception! They have racing on tap on the Main Street trail today.

SkiNC / SkiSoutheast Note: – Last week, Bob Mitchell, one of our regular visitors asked why his area of Western North Carolina had seemed to have been "missing out" on numerous snows in the past couple of years. Bob resides in the Asheville area. We posed the question to our newest member of our team, meteorologist, Brad Panovich, and here is what Brad had to say.

"I Was asked a question about the lack of snow in the Asheville area, which is a very intriguing question. Why? It may comes as a surprise to many but Asheville, NC is the DRIEST weather reporting station in the entire state of North Carolina, which is not a good place to start if you like snow. That being said, there are a few things one must know about Asheville’s climate. The biggest factors affecting Asheville’s climate is the terrain, the city is surrounded by mountains. The city lies in the French Broad river valley which leads to dry and windy conditions. The mountains that surround the valley actually lift the air and squeeze out most of the moisture. In fact the one oddity about the area is that while Asheville is the driest weather station in the state (37.32” annual precipitation), the wettest weather station is just 40 miles to the Southeast of Asheville at Lake Toxaway in Transylvania County(91.72” of precipitation annually). So needless to say this part of the state has some wacky weather. The mountains to the South of Asheville are really “using” up all the available moisture before it gets to Asheville.

Now you can understand why Asheville gets such little snow to begin with. Bob asked the question about “big” snows of 6” or more. Doing some research… 6” snows in Asheville are in fact a rarity! During the snow season which is Nov-April over the past 41 years. I found that there were only 20 snowstorms in which 6 inches or more fell at the reporting station in Asheville. In fact, if you had a storm of 6” or more you would most likely set a daily snowfall record. Of the 20 6” or more snowfalls in the past 41 years, 4 of those have occurred in the last 10 years. So to answer Bob’s question I’d have to say there just aren’t big snows in Asheville on a regular basis. The highest snow storm total ever in Asheville was during the March 1993 “Super storm” , but storms like those are truly the exception to the rule for Asheville.

So to see big snows you will need to go somewhere other than Asheville.

The good news is that you don’t have to go far. In fact the most snow reported in North Carolina is up at Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell owns most of the snowfall records in the state, but Boone does win the seasonal record for snow of 103.4” back in 1960. They also have the record for the deepest snow depth of 44” set the same year.

The single snowstorm total at Mount Mitchell was 50” in the March 1993 super storm, but New Found Gap in the Smokies beat them out with a 60” snowstorm in April of 1987.

In summary, I don’t think there has been a lack of snow in Asheville lately. I just think things have gotten back to Normal. The decade of the 60’s was snowy and so were the 80’s and early 90’s, but lately the snowfall has been closer to normal. The climate of the area by its very nature is suppose to ebb and flow over time. Overall snowfall has been up around the Carolinas over the past 2 winters. The Asheville area has just not been one of those areas.

Hope that answer your question.
Brad

Email me notes, replies, comments and photos at: [email protected]

Don’t forget to visit: https://www.skisoutheast.com

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Winterplace was looking particularly nice on Saturday…except for all those towers up top.
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