THE CRUEL TRICKERY OF MOTHER NATURE
Okay Mr. Panovich, you got s-o-m-e splainin’ to do! Just before I left my office on Tuesday afternoon I received an email from Brad Panovich of WCNC in Charlotte, NC. He had just informed me that the mountains of Western North Carolina would receive 1-2” of snow and some mixed precip, and he also told me that the high elevations further North into Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland could see from one to two FEET of snow. He did say that most of that region would see a foot and that Snowshoe Mountain would easily see 20” and that it wouldn’t surprise him to see two feet of snow during the Tuesday night to Wednesday midday period. Oh yea, the temperature when I left my office at around 4:30pm was 28° and it had already left a nice coating of maybe 1/2 “ on my truck. As I crossed the covered bridge over the Watauga River I saw a good portion of the stream through there was iced over and coated with snow. I thought for a moment about pulling over to snap what was a sweet “Kodak Moment”, but figured that I’d get a better photo this morning after the additional snow.
That was 19° degrees ago. That’s how much the temperature rose during the evening and night time hours across the High Country! The temperature this morning as I write this story is now 40°, which is 12° warmer than yesterday afternoon. However, last night at about midnight or shortly after, the thermometer actually registered a Spring-like 47°. We didn’t get the snow either, and of course I missed my “Kodak Moment”.
I can see Mother Nature and Old Man Winter holed up somewhere in a cheap motel room, sharing an intimate laugh at my expense! (They don’t yet know about our new elite, attack unit! We’ll get them!)
Ann Waters of Spartanburg, SC wrote us this morning, “Hi guys! This weather has to have set some kind of record. I see that the lows yesterday were in the single digits in some areas and now some 30+ degrees higher 24 hours later. Weird isn’t it? Keep up the great website.”
Thanks for your compliment Ann…and yes it is weird. We’re seeing temperature differences across a lot of North Carolina that is showing from 26-30° warmer this morning than yesterday at this time! Crazier still is the fact that the temperature rocketed upwards nearly 15° in less than 20 minutes around from 10pm to 10:20pm last night according to our weather station!
OKAY, SO WHERE’S THE “TRICKERY”?
Try this on for size. While those of us in Western North Carolina missed out on the snow and are sitting around this morning doing math because of the rising temps, ski areas into Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland are looking at just SLIGHTLY warmer temps this morning and significant snow. (Not the kind of snow that Brad Panovich was predicting, but snows nonetheless.)
Massanutten Resort received their first substantial snowfall of the season as they received 4” of snow overnight and the temperature there this morning is only 14°!
Ditto for The Homestead as they too received 4” of new snow.
Ditto for Wintergreen Resort in Virginia as they reported 3-4” of snow and 13° this morning! That may be 13 degrees “warmer” than Tuesday morning, but it’s still frigid! Sarah Lovejoy wrote, “We are continuing to make snow and we plan on opening Lower Cliffhanger tomorrow and Big Acorn on Friday so make plans to come up and be one of the first ones this season to ski and ride these trails.”
Canaan Valley is reporting a low temp that is 17 degrees warmer than yesterday, but then yesterday morning was MINUS 10°. Today’s low is 7° and they too saw 4” of snow.
Snowshoe Mountain is reporting 7° this morning after 7” of new snow was dumped on the mountaintop resort. Lindsay Kutsko just emailed me, “I’m heading out to get some pictures on the slopes and I’ll get more to you later. Wow, I love winter when it snows!! Snowshoe Mountain was hit with 7 inches of snow last night, covering the slopes with tons of fresh powder. The temperatures are in the single digits with snow continuing to fall and more accumulation expected throughout the day today!”
Timberline Resort has be getting some favorable accumulations of late. They are just a ridge over from Canaan, but saw another 8” of snow in the last 24 hours and it’s still snowing and 4°
Winterplace Resort also picked up 7” of snow and they are still receiving snow this morning!
Wisp at Deep Creek Resort is reporting the same 2° reading that they had Tuesday morning and they too saw 5” of new snow.
Ober Gatlinburg did not get any snow overnight, but they did make enough snow to get to 100% open for today.
SKI CONDITIONS WILL BE P-R-E-T-T-Y SWEET ON WEDNESDAY!
Ski Beech was making snow like crazy yesterday, as were many others until the temps went above snow making range and conditions across all of the region will be very nice. If you have a ski trip planned for this weekend, you are in luck! The weather looks great through the next several days as it should be mostly sunny and highs in the 30s and lows in the teens to low 20s all the way through Sunday and them more snow is in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday, so the GREAT weather continues!
Until Next Time…
THINK COLD AND SNOW!!!
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