-Story by Will Mauney
So there is some pretty significant snow accumulation on the ground this morning, but not where you’d think. With about four inches of heavy wet granular like snow at my house in Banner Elk and a sleet/snow mix falling I headed out this morning to “no-snow” Foscoe only to find more snow! The lighter and larger flakes where falling when I passed Sugar Mountain and the farther I got down 105 the more snow had fallen. By the time I was in our parking lot this morning in Foscoe there was around seven inches on the ground. This is very atypical of Foscoe. After looking at few of the resort snow totals I was even more shocked. Typically higher elevations get more snow right? Well, not today, at least not yet. Beech Mountain has reported only one inch so far this morning with Appalachian and Sugar reporting six and five inches. Ober Gatlinburg is getting rain unfortunately right now but hopefully will change to snow tonight. According to a few of our staff the Northern half of the NC mountains towards Deep Gap and Todd have received more like ten inches already.
It seems as though Mother Nature can’t make up her mind here in NC with snow turning to sleet to freezing rain and back to snow all day. The biggest snow totals for this storm will be seen around the Virginia and West Virginia resorts. Massanutten Resort should receive 6-10 inches today with an additional 11-19 inches tonight and Saturday another 3-7 inches. If that happens they could have thirty inches by Sunday! Wintergreen Resort is also expecting 7-11 inches today, 10-14 tonight and 4-8 Saturday. Similar situations at Bryce and the Homestead with heavy snow expected through Saturday. It seems as though this storm has targeted Virginia and if you’ve got a good set of snow tires, four-wheel drive and some patience, head up to one of Virginia’s five resorts and to take advantage of this historic storm.
The West Virginia resorts will also be hit by this by this huge system, forecasts are just as impressive for Winterplace, Canaan Valley and Timberline with their numbers showing total possible accumulations of near twenty inches by Sunday as well. I guess that initial forecast for “feet” of snow will hold true and we will all be anxious to see how much snow falls in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic over the next 72 hours.
I know there’s a lot of SkiSoutheast fans out there who love this weather. The hope for big storms and big snowfall is the reason we all love being in the mountains. So be safe on the roads if you’re traveling. To all the kids staying at home again today, have fun, enjoy the snow and try to convince Mom or Dad to get you guys on the slope at some point this weekend as it will be nice! Check back for more updates this weekend and to keep track of all the snow that will fall during this epic storm. As we are just now half way into the ski season and my fingers are crossed for a few more systems like this to inundate the Southeast and Mid Atlantic with even more snow.
We’re on day 69 and there are 68 more days of opportunities to enjoy the snow for the 2009-2010 ski and snowboarding season!
That’s it for today. Go enjoy the snow! Check out the Snow Report at https://www.skisoutheast.com/skireports.php and please send us your favorite ski photos, ski videos, trip reports and comments to [email protected]