Merry Christmas Eve everyone!
Santa will be getting a little damp on his trek across much of the region tonight but not so much that it will mess up an entire day of ski plans. Since it is Christmas Eve, we will be combining reports for SkiNC and SkiSoutheast today and Sunday.
Most of the region’s conditions and weather forecast from North Carolina up through Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland is almost identical, which is unusual. However that’s the case for today and over the next couple of days. Expect nearly perfect conditions for skiing today as temps will creep up close to 50 degrees in many areas. Expect high 40s at the highest elevations.
This morning saw yet another creepy inversion. Down here at Sleepy Hollow (between Boone and Banner Elk) we are in a deep freez at 7:40am at 18° this morning, while Beech Mountain at more than 5000 feet in elevation is reporting a balmy 42°. That is amazing! FYI, it’s 36° at Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia, 16° in Valle Crucis, 34° at Winterplace in West Virginia, 15° in Banner Elk. I could go on but you get the picture. When it shows 42° and just ten minutes below that it’s 15°, that is one amazing inversion!
Get your skiing and riding in today and spend time with your families or traveling tonight and Christmas Day as there will be a fair amount of what our friend Joe Stevens’ calls underdeveloped snow (rain for those that have their thinking caps turned off). As much as one-half to one-inch of rain is being forecasted for much of the eastern seaboard and that’s okay…cause we should be chilling and huddling up with family and discussing the REASON for the SEASON tonight and Sunday anyhow. Happy Birthday Jesus – of any of you are offended – click to another website!
Around the time that you should be finishing up opening your gifts and shouting with glea over those new skis or snowboard that Santa brought you…things will be getting colder and we are expecting to see a WHITE PM Christmas with as much as a couple to four inches of snow across the mountains of North Carolina into Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland!
Snow showers are expected to linger into Monday and that will setup nearly perfect conditions for Holiday skiers and riders.
Check the slope report, because several resorts are giving their families some opportunities to gather with their families this evening and they will not be open for night skiing tonight or the morning of Christmas Day. We’ll elaborate more as we have the time later today or AM Christmas Morning.
THINK SNOW and COLD and if you have any comments or photos you’d like to send, please send them to [email protected]
Merry Christmas Everyone!