Temperatures will moderate a bit today, making for a wonderful time to be on the slopes and trails of your favorite resort. After a cold start this morning we should see temps climb to around 45° for the North Carolina mountains. Sunny skies will be the rule and that will make for the perfect ski and snowboard outing. Blue skies, good temps and lots of snow everywhere…and the snowguns will be off when the temps warm a bit.
Meteorologist, Brad Panovich has been all but nailing the forecasts for us lately and it looks like more good weather for us most all week and good snowmaking temperatures each night with the possible exception of tonight…which will be good for the resorts to continue to make snow and build up their base depths and open more terrain. The weekend is still looking "iffy" regarding the upcoming wintry mix that is forecasted for Saturday and Sunday. Then we’re looking at a little rain coming in next Monday or so. However that’s a bit far out so we’ll hold off on anymore weather talk until we move through the next day or two and receive more of Brad’s forecasts.
Old Farmer’s Almanac Winter Forecast has been remarkably close! – We wrote about the Old Farmer’s Almanac Winter Forecast back during our cold drought and it was eerie how close that prediction was for the winter to that point. It predicted a slow start and very mild weather except for a two week cold snap in December…which was near perfect for what actually happened! In the midst of the extreme warmup we wrote of the almanac’s forecast of the colder and snowier weather coming in during the main portion of January and about it’s prediction that the END of January would offer up another LESSER mild period from about now through February 5th. After that the almanac forecasts lots of consistent COLD and numerous snows. We looked at the long range forecasts according to a couple of sources and they are showing pretty much NORMAL temps for this time of year from now through the first week of February…so we’ll have to wait and see…but it WOULD BE NICE to get some deep (12" to 16" snows) for the rest of the winter.
Thanks to all of your Photos! – Since the cold and snow returned…we’ve been getting some great photos and we have posted those to the Photos of the Day pages under each resort. Those pages are definately a "must see". Visit the SkiNC.com photo gallery at: http://www.skinorthcarolina.com/photo.asp and don’t forget that we also post photos from resorts all over the southeast on SkiSoutheast.com. View those visiting: https://www.skisoutheast.com/photo.asp. If you’re out and about, be sure to submit your entries so that WE CAN ALL ENJOY THEM to: [email protected].
Conditions are S-W-E-E-T! Right now! Conditions across the region could not be much better than you will find them right now.
Cataloochee has everything open except for Upper Omigosh (operating 9 of 10 slopes) and wonderful snow.
Hawksnest is in the best shape of the season ALSO with (9) slopes open…and their popular tubing park.
Ski Beech has everything open except for Upper and Lower Southern Star and the Oz Run. They are making snow as long as temps allow today…and the conditions there should be great!
Sugar Mountain has the most terrain open this season with (18) trails open. That means that everything is open except Sugar Bear and Boulderdash. For you thrill seekers…that ALSO means that Whoopdedoo is open! You’ll find the best conditions of the season at Sugar today as well.
Wolf Laurel is also boasting (10) trails and phenomenal conditions with a base of 2-3 feet of snow.
So what are you doing reading this? Get out and have some fun and get us some photos!
On-Snow Reports
Jesse Smole was at Sugar on Monday and summed up the conditions everywhere on Monday – "I enjoyed an afternoon of skiing at Sugar Monday. It was by far the best snow I have been on in NC this year!! Nearly all of their terrain was open and conditions were great with plenty of snow everywhere. They had signs up at the top of Whoopdeedoo and Tom Terrific warning of ice but even those trails had plenty of snow on them. Late in the day a few slick spots did develop but nothing unbearable and if you kept your eyes open you could avoid any patches of ice, and snow was still being made so I am sure conditions will only be getting better over the next few days."
Jesse sent some great images…as did several of you…so be sure to check them out on the Photo Gallery!
Feel free to write me at: [email protected]
Don’t forget to visit: https://www.skisoutheast.com
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