The school kids are out AGAIN today, after being released early on Tuesday afternoon for an approaching storm that didn’t arrive until this morning…sort of. As of 7:35am this morning Beech Mountain is reporting 1.5", Sugar isn’t even reporting anything we received word that 7/10ths of an inch fell there according to our CocoRaHS reporter up at The Reserve on Sugar. It’s so windy that things appear to be a dusting on top of all the snow that’s piled around from previous storms.
7/10ths of an inch of snow was recorded in Blowing Rock at 7am this morning. There’s no report of measureable snowfall yet from Wolf or Cataloochee as of 7am.
WIND? We got it!
The heavy winds arrived as forecasted. They came in at around 2am. I know that because my home, which kind of hangs off the side of a mountain, was on "vibrate" and woke me up to alarm me that it was windy. I don’t know what the highest gusts were, but I’m originally from Charleston, South Carolina and have been through MANY hurricanes and these winds were right up there! I have to admit, I was saying some prayers! Thankfully they were answered as the winds tapered down to "wind tunnel force" an hour or so later and allowed me to catch a few additional minutes of sleep before I had to get up and fight what I THOUGHT was going to be the blizzard.
Once I drudged through the refrigerator ice that blankets my driveway I was able to "WAVE" the accummulated snow off my windshield with one quick flip of my hand. I climbed into my truck, which displayed 12° and headed to my office. Hwy 105 was pretty snow covered with a rather risky, half-inch of snow. I’d rather have a foot of snow as it’s easier to trust your traction in.
By 9am it was SNOWING rather steady and according to the NWS our part of the Southeast (Western North Carolina) should see anywhere from 4-8" of snow depending on elevations – through today and tonight.
Along with that 4-8" of snow we’re also expecting 55-70 mph winds. Okay – THERE’S YOUR BLIZZARD, but you kind of think that a blizzard should be heavy wind AND heavy, deep snowfalls. You know, with good snow everywhere and drifts two feet deep or more all over the place.
Not seeing that from this storm down here in the High Country. We’ll see how this thing develops though.
VIRGINIA IS FOR BLIZZARDS! (WV and MD as well!)
The "Virginia is for Lovers" motto is pretty apropo with lovers in the Commonwealth probably all snuggled up in their beds this morning after at least six more inches of snow has already fallen at Massanutten and other VA ski resorts. According to the NWS they will only see a couple more inches of snow through today.
Before covering Snowshoe and the WV ski areas I’m going to skip up to the snowy climbs of McHenry, Maryland – home to Wisp Resort – where 8" of snow has already fallen as of 7am this morning. They are looking at perhaps at least another 8" of snowfall if not more through Thursday morning which puts them up around 150" on the season. That is FIFTY MORE INCHES OF SNOW than they typically average per full season. They will add a bunch more to that today and then snow is in their forecast for Thursday, Thursday night, Friday and then again Saturday and Sunday.
Snowshoe Mountain is reporting 4" of new snow and they are expecting perhaps another FOOT of snow today according to Laura Parquette’s post. According to the NWS report it could be closer to 15" more snow with a foot in the forecast for today and tonight and then another 1-3" possible for Thursday. Oh yeah, SNOW IS IN THEIR FORECAST everyday between now and Monday.
AFTER THAT? MORE SNOW!
This has been a winter that we’ll all talk about for some time to come even if it doesn’t snow another flake of snow once these couple of systems clear out. There’s piles of snow all over the place and as we’ve reported many times in the last few weeks, there’s been natural snow piled up everywhere since the middle of December. So if you make a trip to the mountains, you’re going to see SNOW and not just on the slopes!
The forecast is for more snow into the first of next week and forecasters are not seeing any real signs that the end of this ski and snowboarding season will be any different than what we’ve seen so far. More volatile weather, with more in the way of crazy snows and winter weather.
WHAT? YOU WANT MORE REPORTS OF SNOW!?!?!
Admittedly I saved the best for last. Canaan Valley and Timberline Resort have seen ANOTHER 12.2" of snow in the last 24 hours! That’s right – a foot of snow. David Lesher who runs a pro-weather reporting service from his 3715 ft mountaintop location in Davis, West Virginia posted his 7am report where it is 3° and 12.2" more snow has fallen.
David is reporting a natural snow depth of 34" on the ground. They’ve had 32.7" of snow in JUST the last FIVE DAYS and 39.4" of snow in the month of February – and 167.5" on the season to date. …and it is still snowing and there’s about 60 days left in this season!
OH COME ON! THAT ISN’T ENOUGH FOR YOU GUYS?!?!
Okay, here’s one more bit of snowy insight that revisits the Wisp Resort area. Fox News and other reporting services have been covering the last two blizzards that have hit our nation’s capitol. Wisp Resort is a favorite of DC’ers and as mentioned earlier they picked up 34" of snow during the LAST Blizzard that hit just four days ago! As we also stated earlier, they’ve reported 8" of snow overnight for a total of 47" of snow in the last ten days!
As I am wrapping up this post we’re seeing some moderate snowfall now, so maybe we’ll see something in way of the 4-6-8" of snow that the NWS is forecasting for today here in the NC Mountains. The cool thing is that we’re in a very cold and snowy pattern across the entire region and there’s plenty of natural snow no matter where YOUR favorite ski area is located within the Southeast and mid Atlantic. In terms of ski conditions – things are pretty much incredible everywhere.
We’ll need to get through a couple of windy days but the fast-approaching weekend looks to be one that will offer a little more snowfall and some awesome ski and snowboarding conditions for your trip to the mountains.
So all of you people who email me all the time telling me that you’ve never seen snow and want to know when there will be snow on the ground, etc, etc. – WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? It’s here, everywhere, no matter which resort you head to – NOW! Come play in it!
You can email me at [email protected] with your comments, questions, videos, photos and more! See you on the slopes!