As of this post (7:29am) the snow is falling across the High Country. It is another beautiful snowfall with no wind at this time and we have a pretty good coating of snow on the ground. Brad Panovich provided his update last night and things still looked the same at that time – he is still forecasted 3-5” of snow which is consistent with our friends at the National Weather Service are also forecasting 2-4” of snow, and as of this morning Dr. Ray Russell of Boone Weather has altered his outlook to reflect more likely that most areas will see 1-3” with a few higher amounts – closer to 5”…which is now consistent with the NWS and what Brad is saying. So it looks pretty good for enough snow to go play around in!
It is coming down pretty good right now, so we’ll see.
The temps are already very cold and the forecast is for this temps to hold where they are right now and drop to about 15° or so night. The NWS has issued a snow advisory for today for the High Country. We’ll be about 17° colder than normal today and some 10° or so colder than normal tonight. Last year was remarkably like today with a high of 33° and low of 15°.
The records for today in Weather History were:
Record high of 65° in 1970,
Record low of minus 11° in 1958
The most snow we’ve had on this one day was back in 1979 with 5”
Here’s the forecast details:
Today’s HIGH will stick to about where we are right now, so we’ll call today’s high at 30°. The low tonight will be near 15°. We’re going to stick with Meteorologist Brad Panovich’s forecast of the last two days and say that we’ll get that 3” to 5” of snow.
Sunday will provide a break between storms as the sun comes out and probably melts away the good snow in the areas where the sun hits. Highs Sunday will be near freezing. The low Sunday night will be around 24°.
The second round of Snow hits Monday and Tuesday…with some carry over snow or wintry mix on Wednesday. Highs Monday will be near freezing and lows around 28°. Brad says to look for another 2-4” of snow on Monday or so and the NWS says that Monday’s snow could be mixed with a little sleet or freezing rain.
So we could see 5-9” of snow from today through Tuesday, but because of the warmer ground temps from Thursday and the sun popping out on Sunday – it may end up looking a little less.
Areas further west towards Maggie Valley and Mars Hill (home to Cataloochee and Wolf Laurel) may be a little bit milder and thus might see a bit more in the way of under-developed snow (light drizzle) and we’ll update you as the day progresses if warranted.
Until Next Time!
Check out www.HighCountryWeather.com for more information and also be sure to check out www.SkiSoutheast.com for more weather information about ski resorts to the north!
Be sure to email photos, snow reports and comments to: [email protected]