Check the SNOW REPORT for individual resort, slope openings and more.
Photo of the Day is from Cataloochee Ski Area this morning as ski patrol was checking out the POWDER!
As of 9:25am, the natural snowfall has been limited to the North Carolina ski resorts as this storm is first pushing snow from the south to north.
As of 10:30am we were seeing snow falling into Virginia and West Virginia as well. Snow totals shown below are as of the time posted. A lot of heavy snow is falling today!
As of 10:40am Kenny Griffin just shared that ResortCams.com had ALREADY been viewed more than 250,000 times this morning. We are definitely breaking records today!
I am like a kid on Christmas morning when it comes to snow. I know I speak for my team, Kenny Griffin, Matt Laws, Brian Dix and Rudy Ryback in saying that they are as well. SkiSoutheast columnist, Joe Stevens, formerly of “Joe Knows Snow” and now of “Snow News is Good News” is a big snow loving dude as well. Meteorologist Brad Panovich? Ditto. Brad has to rein in his own love of snow to keep himself in check when forecasting snow.
Again, I was like a kid overnight. I could barely go to sleep. I kept checking the webcams; looked at the weather radar and nothing was happening other than a burst of flurries here and there at midnight, 2am, 4am, 6am. Like I said, it was Christmas morning here.
I was understandably groggy when I crawled out of bed to check the snow totals and conditions across the region and I saw that Cataloochee Ski Area was getting pretty significant snowfall, but not so much here in the High Country. Barely an inch of snow was on my deck. I decided to shave and shower before diving in to report, as I already knew today would be way busier than usual. By the time I walked upstairs to “SkiSoutheast Central”, we were at 3″ (7:45am) and now 4.5″ at 8:30am.
It is coming down!
This morning’s report is going to be “fluid” to say the least. As of 8:30am we are seeing the heaviest snow in Western North Carolina as winter storm “Izzy” makes her way fully into the region. It is expected to dump significant snow here in the mountains of North Carolina, then push into the Virginia ski areas (where it might be deeper snows) and then up into West Virginia and Maryland.
As I said, today’s snow reporting will be “fluid” and a work-in-progress, especially being able to report snowfall totals and keep them accurate. Case in point: At 6am this morning, the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center was reporting Appalachian Ski Mountain with 1.60″ of snowfall. Beech and Sugar reported 2″ as of 7am. Now, they all have significantly more than that with at least 7″ here as of 10am.
We will have to compile data for each morning to get anything other than some “marketing department snowfall totals” at some resorts.
The other newsworthy content is that many resorts are already SOLD OUT for lift passes for Sunday, so if you were THINKING about heading to your favorite resort for some POWDER skiing, you’ll either need a season pass or you better have already purchased a ticket in advance.
GONE are the days when you could just watch the weather news, see it bombing snow and head to your favorite ski hill without FIRST seeing if you can get on their mountain.
SOLD OUT FOR SUNDAY:
Appalachian Ski Mountain
Cataloochee Ski Area
Massanutten Resort – has LIMITED availability today for walkup ticket purchases.
Wintergreen Resort
Winterplace Resort – Walk-up window tickets may be limited.
SNOW TOTALS SO FAR (Again these are going to move up hourly)
NOTE: Check the SNOW REPORT remarks section and we will update totals “AS OF” certain times.
If we don’t list a resort below, that is because there is no reported snowfall totals as of this report (8:50am).
6.1″ Cataloochee Ski Area (9.6″ on the season) (Most snow as of 6am Sunday).
6″ Sapphire Valley Resort (9.5″ on the season) CLOSED SUNDAY!
6″ Wolf Ridge Resort (16.5″ on the season)
5″ Beech Mountain Resort (18.5″ on the season)
5″ Sugar Mountain Resort (18″ on the season)
2″ Appalachian Ski Mountain (7.5″ on the season) (Already past 6″ as of 10am)
No measurable snowfall at the Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia or Maryland ski resorts as of 10am Sunday.
Notables:
As I was looking at snowfall totals for Ober Gatlinburg, I noticed that Sylva had 4.5″ of snow. Maggie Valley (kind of the gateway to the Smokies) had 6.10″ and Newfound Gap, just down from Gatlinburg in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park had 7.86″ of snow as of 6am this morning.
Ober Gatlinburg? None. It was actually raining there overnight as temps were just above freezing. Thankfully as of 9am it has cooled down a bit, but still no snow. However, they are plugging away through challenging weather as they always do. Conditions look good there despite the lack of natural snow.
Kudos to Ober’s team!
Sapphire Valley Resort – despite the fact that the Connestee Falls area received 7.20″ of snow as of 6am Sunday, and the ski resort itself picked up 6″ of natural snow – they are CLOSED for Sunday. (I can see some poachers hitting that today.)
The video below is from Kenny Griffin who hit up Spruce at Snowshoe this morning!
Here is a video TOUR of each of the Resort Cams as of 10am this morning.
Like I said, MORE will be forthcoming throughout the day.
Email me at [email protected]
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