Merry Christmas everyone!
Up to 8″ of snow fell overnight after one heck of a rainy Thursday. We saw rain totals on Thursday exceed 1″ in several ski mountain locations. Then the flash freeze came in late in the afternoon and early evening hours and I am only slightly exaggerating when I say it transitioned everything over to ice, sleet and snow as quickly as it did in the blockbuster movie, “The Day After Tomorrow” – where the Earth was thrown into an ice age.
As I said, I am only slightly-to-moderately exaggerating as running water coming down my front steps and rain, switched to HEAVY sleet so quickly that my front deck was covered within perhaps one minute. What was puddles of water moments earlier, had turned to ice. Less than five minutes later, we had a snow-covered deck.
Snow continues as I looked around at the LIVE cams this morning. It is always interesting how these storms deposit snow at different mountain locations. While Massanutten Resort didn’t really get any of the heavier snow accumulations, it IS snowing rather nicely as of this 8:30am writing. Elsewhere in Virginia, Omni Homestead, which is now making snow in preparation for their season opening TOMORROW, Saturday – is getting good snowfall right now and around 7″ over the last 24 hours. That will make for a sweet opening, right?
Quick comment about ResortCams.com on Thursday: While there wasn’t much to look at on Thursday with all the rain and fog, we did have one of those surprise, server, software updates run automatically which shut down most all of the cameras for a few hours. It is a real “Murphy’s Law” thing – if we go on vacation or Holiday – THAT is when one of these things will run. Thanks to Samantha Haverty of Canaan Valley Resort for giving me the heads up!
A surprise winner in the SNOW lottery, is Ober Gatlinburg which picked up from 7-8″ of natural snowfall overnight. They are at 13° this morning. It has already been a banner start for the season for the Smoky Mountain ski area. …and as of 9am it was still snowing in Gatlinburg.
Wolf Ridge Resort saw 6″ of natural snowfall, but they won’t be taking advantage of those powder conditions today as they are closed for Christmas Day.
Actually, the radar (and our LIVE SKI CAMS) are showing that snow continues to fall across the region. While the NC mountains could pickup a little more snow, the ski areas in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland look like they will see heavier snow for next little bit.
If you haven’t checked out Meteorologist Brad Panovich’s Snowy Forecast that was shared last night, here it is:
Snowshoe Mountain Resort – Not sure if it was Shawn Cassells, but one of their communications people was channeling “HOME ALONE” this morning with their snow report as they posted, “It’s going to be a chilly one today with a high of 10 and wind chills below zero. Extra layers and breaks will be crucial for staying warm today. Shaver’s Center and Top of the World are spacious slope side spots to warm up and stay distanced! Enjoy the shredding you filthy powder animals.”
As I was posting this morning’s snow report, bear in mind that some of the ski areas had not updated their own report, so in a couple of cases we assumed that they would keep the same slope counts.
While Snowshoe Mountain’s official, National Weather Service station recorded 5″ of snowfall, David Lesher and the Canaan Valley area saw 2.4″. Winterplace Resort, which USUALLY sees somewhat less snow that those resorts north of them, saw 4″ of new snow.
Like I previously stated, these storms always throw little surprises at us.
As I wrap up this abbreviated snow report on the snowy, white, Christmas Day, perhaps the hardest snow I am seeing right now is up around Wisp Resort. Check out this quick capture from around 9:30am:
Guys, we may update things a little later in the day, but I’m off to visit with some family. Stay warm; Stay Well; Stay Safe…and if you’re heading to the slopes – #MaskUp
Here are some quick shares:
Sapphire Vallery grooming this morning. They saw about 1″ of natural snowfall down that way.
The LEAD story, Photo of the Day is from Massanutten Resort. They were out grooming for a great day of Christmas skiing and snowboarding.
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