Good Morning, SkiNC and SkiSoutheast world!! It’s snowing, again. Yesterday was a gorgeous day across the region. The sun was shining, and it was cold, but there were plenty of blue skies to take advantage of! My guess is that those beautiful bluebird skies combined with some serious powder made for pretty awesome conditions at ski areas yesterday.
The talk of last day or so has been all about this big, bad, terrible winter storm that’s set to wreak havoc on cities across the southeast. Well, we haven’t heard from our favorite weather dude Brad Panovich yet with a breakdown on this current storm, although I am sure we will, but it’s set to be pretty serious. Snow started falling here in the wee hours of the morning. I got up at 5:30 am to let my sweet little dog out for her morning business trip and everything was covered. The thing that shocks me the most is just how quiet everything is when it snows. Now granted it was 5:30am so there wasn’t a whole lot of hustle and bustle anyways, but there wasn’t a sound in the world, you literally could have heard a pin drop. You could see the snow falling gently in the street light beams and it was just, well, peaceful.
Three cheers for Sapphire Valley today, they’ve gotten 7.1 inches of natural snow, Cataloochee is close behind with 6.2 inches of snow, and Ober Gatlinburg has gotten an additional 5 inches!!
As we are waiting to hear from Brad down in Charlotte, here’s what the National Weather Service has to say about the current winter system for TODAY only:
North Carolina Ski Areas
Today: Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 27. Southeast wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.
Tonight: Snow before 4am, then freezing drizzle likely. Low around 23. Southeast wind between 3 and 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New ice accumulation of less than a 0.1 of an inch possible. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Virginia Ski Areas
Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 33. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Tonight: Snow likely after 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 21. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
West Virginia Ski Areas
Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 25. Wind chill values as low as -1. Light north wind.
Tonight: Snow likely, mainly after 5am. Cloudy, with a low around 20. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
Now here’s your look around!!
North Carolina…
Appalachian Ski Mountain – 14°- Almost an inch of new snow ( .8 inches) at Appalachian this morning. Appalachian is the easternmost of the ski areas in the NC Mountains, so their totals are going to be lower than areas that sit on western facing slopes. They are pen today on 11 of 12 slopes with a base of 75-103 inches! The AppalJam Terrain Park is closed and will be the focus of concentrated snowmaking!!
Beech Mountain Resort – 18°- Open today on 15 of 15 slopes with another 1 inch of snow. There is tons of powder for skiing and riding at Beech and with temps in the upper teens and 20’s today, it just doesn’t get much better than that, and snow is forecast for all day today and tomorrow…Beech is up to 91.3 inches of snow this year!!!
Cataloochee – 19°- 6.2 inches of the Royal Freshness today!! Powder Galore at Cataloochee and it’s still coming down!!! Cataloochee is open today with POWDER conditions on 16 of 16 slopes today for the day session only! Tube World in Maggie Valley is closed and will reopen on Thursday at 4pm.
Sapphire Valley – 19.7°- 7.1 inches of NEW SNOW!!!! The CoCoRahs reporter in Sapphire Valley is reporting an incredible 7.1 inches of snow from this new winter system!! I’m intrigued by this mysterious Sapphire Valley place after they get the occasional large amount of snow and especially following the Sapphire Trip Report I posted a week or so ago. I might just have to make the trip to check it out. This new snow brings the season total to 20.5 inches.
Sugar Mountain – 15°- Sugar scored another 1.2 inches of snow in the last day and it’s still coming down, that’s 75.2 for the season, I expect that number will climb quite a bit in the next day or two. They are open today on 20 of 20 slopes with 7 of 9 lifts operating. Sugar will be throwing down tomorrow with a celebration of skiers and riders 70 years and older!! Sugar will NOT be making snow during the day session!!
Wolf Ridge Resort – 21°- Wolf Ridge is listing surface conditions on the slopes as Powder!! It’s snowing again at Wolf Ridge but our CoCoRahs weather station hasn’t reported yet, so I’ll update that later as the information becomes available! Open today on 11 of 20 slopes with 2 lifts. Wolf is also offering an Out-of-School special for students and teachers…it’s a great way to spend an afternoon if you or your kids are out of school for the day!
Virginia…
Bryce Resort – 18°- Open today on 7 slopes with 7 lifts running. Snowmaking ops are bombing the slopes with these colder temperatures!! Fingers crossed the Virginia ski areas get some natural snow from this storm!!
Massanutten Resort – 19°- Snowmaking ops continue to keep surface conditions awesome! Mass is open today on 14 of 14 slopes with all lifts running! Tubing is also open today!
Wintergreen – 14°- Open today for skiing and riding on 25 slopes and trails with great conditions. Wintergreen will only be open for the day session and the Tubing Park will be closed until Thursday to allow for intense snowmaking!
West Virginia…
Canaan Valley – 19°- Of course it snowed at Canaan. With .4 inches being reported Canaan has officially broken the 100 inch mark…but .1 inches, but hey, it counts. Canaan is open today on 36 of 39 trails with 2 lifts running. Conditions at Canaan are awesome. Snowfall totals are sure to climb over the next day!!
Snowshoe Mountain – 8° – Open today on 54 slopes and trails with 13 lifts operating…here’s what Laura Parquette has to say, "We’re starting off the week with the potential for LOTS of snow in the forecast. A major winter storm is moving through the Southeast, and snow should begin overnight and not let up for several days. We’re seeing accumulation predictions all over the place right now, but whatever we get will only serve to improve upon already spectacular conditions and perhaps provide a powder day or two! Ten inches of snow fell over the weekend, and yesterday’s sunny skies made for one of the best days of the year. We’ll have mostly cloudy weather today as the storm system moves in, but temperatures will be milder than the have been for the last few days. We will continue to take advantage of snowmaking temperatures with some daytime snowmaking on closed terrain. Knot Bumper and Widowmaker will be closed today for concentrated snowmaking at the Snowshoe area. We want to make sure those steep slopes stay in great shape throughout the season, and with almost 100% of our expert terrain open across the mountain, we can spare them for a day or two. Snowmaking is also occurring over at the Silver Creek area on Flying Eagle. Bear Claw is open and we hope to have Flying Eagle by the end of the week. Mountaineer will remain closed as we push more snow around for a large terrain park. Mountaineer should reopen Wednesday or Thursday. Large park features are available in the Spruce Glades Park at Snowshoe. Both Camp 99 and Lower Shay’s remain ungroomed, as they have been for the last several days. That means we have some great bumps forming in those area." BOOYAH…
Timberline Resort – 19°- .4 inches of snow brings Timberline up to 100.1 inches of natural snowfall this season!! Open today on 37 of 39 trails and continued awesome conditions!! Timberline will offer night skiing this Thursday in addition to its normal Friday and Saturday nights.
Winterplace Resort – 15°- Open today on 26 of 28 trails and slopes with amazing conditions. No new natural or manmade snow, but following this weekend’s major event surface conditions are packed powder, and I am sure you extremists could find some hidden powder runs…
Maryland…
Wisp Resort – 9°- Open today on 100% of the Mountain with 8 lifts running. Packed powder surface conditions mixed with an abundance of snow from the weekend make for great Monday skiing and riding. Wisp is only open for the DAY session today. Wisp is expecting to get some major snow from this storm as well, so stay tuned for snow totals over the next day or so.
Tennessee…
Ober Gatlinburg -25°- Another 5 inches of snow fell at Ober Gatlinburg from this current winter storm! That brings their season total to 43 inches. Along with the natural snow bombing much of the area has been receiving, Ober is also bombing the machine snow and finally has Alpine Way open. All season I’ve been reporting they have 7 slopes open and today I can say they actually have 8 of 9 open!! Just waiting on Grizzly!
CHEERS!!!
Think…COLD and Think…SNOW!!!
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