Wow, I don’t even know where to start today! This is our first day back from Christmas vacation here at Appnet, and I can’t think of a better way for the new year to start. Going through and updating the ski report page this morning was AWESOME! The majority of ski areas across the region are seeing a nice layer of fresh, natural snow on the ground this morning. Those that didn’t see any natural snowfall have seen FREEZING cold temperatures and have been blasting the slopes with manmade goodness. I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m pretty stoked this morning!
Alright, so here are the snow totals over the past 24 hours and current temperatures as of 8:24 this morning:
NORTH CAROLINA
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 2” – 15°
Cataloochee – 6.6° – 5"
Beech Mountain Resort – 1° – 5"
Sugar Mountain – 7.9° – 5”
Wolf Ridge – 12° – No official snow total yet (EDIT: Wolf is closed right now due to a lack of water in the lodge.)
WEST VIRGINIA
Canaan Valley – 8° – 10.6”
Timberline – 8° – 10.6”
Snowshoe – 5° – 8”
Winterplace – 11° – 6”
MARYLAND
Wisp – 15° – 12”
VIRGINIA
Bryce – 23°
Massanutten – 16°
Wintergreen – 10°
TENNESSEE
Ober Gatlinburg – 12° OPENING TODAY!
Like I said, just about everyone saw some natural snow and if they didn’t it is ridiculously cold and snowmaking has been taking place. So while the Virginia and Tennessee ski areas didn’t see any natural snow, the cams this morning are showing a wintry wonderland at each resort. Ober Gatlinburg in Tennessee has even been able to make enough snow over the past day or so that they are opening for the season at noon today! Check out their webcam HERE.
Ober might not have seen any natural snow, but temps have plummeted there, allowing for a ton of manmade snow to be layed down. The cam looks great this morning! They open for the season at noon today. >>>>
Here in North Carolina, I can tell you firsthand that it is COLD, WINDY, and SNOWY right now. I drove up from Charlotte this morning and coming through Boone was interesting to say the least. Road conditions aren’t terrible, but it’s really the first time all year we’ve had to deal with conditions like this. The worst part of the drive was right near the 105/321 intersection where the road was actually completely covered and the plows hadn’t been through yet. The wind may be brutal, but it has actually helped keep the roads somewhat clear in a lot of places as it just blows the snow off. That said, the local schools are not in session today as I imagine the back roads are a nightmare. 
<<< These are the roads coming through Boone this morning. Not all of them are this bad, but it was enough for local schools to be cancelled for the day.
It should continue to snow off and on at the ski areas here in NC throughout the day, mainly for the ones here right around Boone. Temperatures aren’t going to warm up that much either. A sign in town this morning said 13 degrees. Our Sugar Mountain Weather station is showing 3.4 degrees right now with a wind chill of -9. Wow! Winds are only at 8 mph right now but have gusted as high as 30 overnight. Basically, it’s pretty miserable outside right now. I am thinking of heading up to Beech tonight, but if it stays like this I may hold off until tomorrow when things calm down a little bit.
As usual, the BIG winners from a Northwest flow event like this are the West Virginia and Maryland ski areas. Snowfall totals up there range from 6 inches at Winterplace to a foot at Wisp. Snowshoe is at 8 inches over the past 24 hours and 11 inches over the past 48 hours. Canaan and Timberline have seen 10.6 inches over the past 24 hours. The snow will continue to fall up that direction throughout the day, with additional accumulations of 2 to 4 inches expected over the next 24 hours. Basically, it’s a powder day up there!
<<< The Winterplace cam is showing that the snow is still falling up there this morning! Pow conditions exist up there today as they have seen 6" of snow over the past 24 hours!
Temperatures won’t be this brutal all week. Today through Thursday night will continue to offer snowmaking conditions for everyone. Friday we will see things warm up and this will continue into the weekend, but I’m not thinking that far ahead. I am just going to enjoy the next couple of days. The transformation on the webcams should be pretty cool to watch and trail counts should shoot up. Pretty exciting times!
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