Meteorologist Matthew East has posted his latest skier’s weather video.
The summary is that we are now seeing that expected Arctic Air filtering back into the region and bringing with it snowmaking weather. Resorts into Tennessee, portions of Virginia and North Carolina will AT LEAST be able to make snow at night and some of the resorts further north will be able to make snow around the clock.
Thursday and Friday look nice, and Saturday and Sunday are snowy and cold.
That, my friends is a perfect ski weekend.
Click here to see> Matthew East’s Southeast Ski Resort Skier’s Forecast
SPEAKING OF SNOWMAKING…
The cold air has not made it to some of the ski areas quite yet. Many are making snow and others are sitting on ready.
All of the North Carolina ski areas except Wolf Ridge and Sapphire Valley are already making snow!
Virginia resorts are not as fortunate this morning as temps are just out of range for snowmaking. None of the resorts in Virginia are making snow as yet.
Bryce Resort is at 39° so no snowmaking yet but they are 100% open. It is 35° at Massanutten and they have not cranked up the snow guns yet. They actually dropped one previously open trail and now offer 9 of 14 trails. Wintergreen is showing 29° but that may be slightly off as they are not yet making snow. They shut down 11 trails that were open yesterday and now offer 11 of 26 trails for today. They have their tubing park open as well.
Most of the West Virginia resorts are making snow…
Canaan Valley is at 32° right now but they are not making snow as yet according to their report and their live web cam. They have 14 of 39 trails open today. They are getting some light, natural snow right now.
Snowshoe’s Laura Parquette wrote that they just updated their slope conditions report to document that they were closing a few trails today for focused snowmaking ops. They are making snow now and have 53 of 60 trails open. Up to 3" of snow is forecasted for Snowshoe today.
Timberline is at 29° but we are not seeing any snowmaking happening on the live cams. We have to believe they will crank up shortly. They have 30 trails open today with Groomed and Frozen Granular conditions.
Winterplace is not making snow as yet, but they are 100% open and snow is on the way…and snowmaking too we presume.
Wisp Resort in Maryland is reporting light snow and 32°, but they are not making snow as yet. They are offering 27 of 35 trails today on Groomed and Frozen Granular conditions.
Ober Gatlinburg is hovering at 34° right now and no snowmaking is going on yet. They will be able to make snow tonight and they have some very cool activities going on at the Smoky Mountain resort. The Southern Exposure 2008 Races and Cardboard Sled Derby will be going on this Friday beginning at Noon!
North Carolina Resort News…
Appalachian Ski Mountain is at 27° at 8am and making snow! They were already in great shape, and the added snowmaking will only make things firmer. They are 100% open with both terrain parks providing some great hits and features. ICe skating is open as well.
Cataloochee is reporting 31° this morning and making snow. They have 11 of 14 trails open and their popular snow tubing hill is open today as well.
Don’t forget to join the Cat Crew on Thursday nights for the Cataloochee Challenge Cup Race Series. $10.00 gets you in and $1.00 of your race entry fee will be donated to KARE the Kids Advocacy Resource Effort of Haywood County, so go on out and race to support a great cause! Individuals race against the clock for the best of two runs. Top three challengers in both men’s and womens’ age divisions win cool stuff. You must be 21 years of age or older to participate. Racing begins at 7pm with a post awards party at 9:30pm, so dust off those racing skills and test your luck. The Cat is where it’s at on Thursday night’s Challenge Cup Race Night. Call the ski area for more information.
Hawksnest Resort – We’re not sure what’s happening up at The Hawk, but they have not updated a report since the 5th, and their weather station isn’t running either. We’ll try to put a call in later. As far as we can tell, it’s about 22° up there and they ARE making snow. They should have 10 trails running and their popular tubing park as well. By the end of the day you won’t see anymore thin coverage areas and the weekend should be great there!
Ski Beech is at 21.9° this morning at 8:18 and they are making tons of snow. So the reparation of slope conditions has begun! They already look a ton better than Wednesday AM and after a good day of snowmaking the bare spots and thin coverage areas will be covered up. With the great snowmaking ops of today and Friday, Ski Beech will be in fine shape.
They have dropped Upper and Lower White Lightning and College Park from their open terrain so they have 12 of 15 trails open today, their terrain park and ice skating.
Sugar Mountain is reporting 20.0° this morning and they are making snow. They have dropped one trail from their open terrain and now have 19 of 20 trails open. Tubing and ice skating is also open, as is their terrain park. Sugar Bear is the only closed trail.
BOSS HAWG will be performing LIVE BLUEGRASS on SATURDAY 4-6PM.
Wolf Ridge has not updated their slope conditions report as yet, but they are at 35° and not making snow as yet. We watched as they were doing some grooming this morning and they will make snow as soon as temps allow. They should have 14 trails open to the top today.
THERE IS NO PACKED POWDER AT OUR SOUTHEAST RESORTS TODAY…
We’ve seen a few ski areas reporting "Packed Powder" this season after one day of snowmaking…and not in reference to a natural snow event. Such is the case again this morning as one of our ski areas is reporting Packed Powder as their surface condition again this morning and yet the snowguns only came on hours ago.
Several resorts are exhibiting the more proper terminology for this morning’s conditions – "Manmade Powder / Frozen Granular". Some industry experts don’t even like that reference because it connotates something not on the trails. Packed Powder has always been the term used to describe conditions a day or two after natural snow has left POWDER conditions. However I think that some of the snow coming from today’s snow making machines can definately be "machine made powder", but packed powder is stretching it.
Ober Gatlinburg’s management always seem to be spot on with their reports and they would reference this morning’s conditions at most of our resorts as "machine made / packed" or even "groomed / hard packed".
THURSDAY AND FORWARD LOOKS GREAT!
If you’re on the mountain today, you’re going to have a great day, Friday will be even better and this weekend will be cold and snowy…so that means that you will have one beautiful ski getaway!
Make your trip plans today!
Enjoy your day…
Until Next time…
Be sure to visit www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news from the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas!
Send your snow photos, videos, comments or emails to: [email protected]