More snow falls across the region! Conditions are GREAT! Enjoy!
Today seems to be the day that I get flooded with a diverse number of subjects via phone calls and emails. Numerous people emailed us asking for an update as to how much snow has fallen in the month of January and thus far on the season at all of our member ski areas. We offer what is probably the only source that can provide that kind of information for the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas so we’ll honor those requests and we’ve posted that information below. Remember though that you can click on ANY of the individual ski resort clicks anytime during the season and the season snowfall total is in the middle column at the top of the page. Several other requests came in asking what percentage of slopes and trails each resort has open right now. There is more terrain open right now than at any point thus far this season and more slopes are opening by Friday, but we do provide that information today in an effort to honor those requests.
Meteorologist Matthew East submitted his skier’s forecast update for the next few days. You can check out his video as it gets more technical that we can – Skier’s Forecast – but the gist of it is that after a prolonged period of cold, snowy weather we’ll now begin to see a pattern changing from the deep trough of cold air that dips way into the Southeast – to one that he calls a "split flow pattern". He basically explains this kind of pattern as one that can be a lot of fun with some intrusions of cold air and storms…but one that is harder to forecast with. The weather for the few days ahead looks like sunny skies through Friday and some chances for a wintry mix of precip into the North Carolina mountains on Saturday, with stronger chances of snow into the Virginias.
Our forecast calls for CONTINUED GREAT CONDITIONS NO MATTER WHERE YOU CHOOSE TO SKI OR RIDE THIS WEEK, WEEKEND AND INTO NEXT WEEK!
Editor’s Note: We normally segregate our reporting for the NC areas from the rest of the Southeast via SkiNC.com. However, since so many requested these figures, we are combining the reports today.
LET’S GET TO THOSE NUMBERS!
James Conner writes, "It seems that you have mentioned snow a lot so far this month. More than usual. I know I’ve heard reports about Beech having 14 inches of snow, but is that for the day, last few days, what?"
(Several others posted similar questions.)
James, it can be confusing looking at some of the region’s ski reports because sometimes they are not clear as to whether the last snow was yesterday or for the complete storm. Sugar Mountain has done a great job (as has Snowshoe and others) about differentiating how much snow fell ‘yesterday’ compared to a storm total. For instance, Ski Beech is reporting "13 of Fresh Snow" and they actually (officially) have seen 11.2" of snow and THAT is over the last 72 hours. They actually received 2.9" of "fresh snow" in the last 24 hours. Beech has now received 11.2" of snow in the last 72 hours, 17.8" of snow in the month of January (about an inch a day through today) and 42" on the season! That is pretty sweet!
Sugar Mountain reports it a little more clearly for you guys by reporting, "Snowfall from the last storm – 10". Sugar has now seen 40" on the season. Again, you can click on any ski resort link and see their snowtotal for the season, and even look back over the last 3-4 years to see comparisons with their AVERAGE ANNUAL SNOWFALL. Again, I think that we are the only resource that shares that information with you guys.
Janie Williamson of (I have never heard of it) Dibrell, Tennessee wrote, "I love your website and it sure seems that West Virginia has been seeing lots of snow this season. Are they ahead of normal? How much?"
(We received more than two dozen emails related to this one.)
Janie, you’re observations are pretty keen. Yes, WV and Maryland have seen a lot of snow thus far this season and really the North Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland ski areas are all ahead of pace to meet or break their AVERAGE ANNUAL SNOWFALL totals. Since you asked, we’re posting each of the resort’s totals thus far, along with the last 72 hours snowfall numbers. We’re posting them in the order of snowfall on the season.
132" – Snowshoe Mountain, WV – 1° this AM – 9" of snow in the last 72 hours
122" – Canaan Valley, WV – 7° this AM – 14.8" of snow in last 72 hours
122" – Timberline, WV – 7° this AM – 14.8" of snow in last 72 hours
83" – Wisp Resort, MD – 5° this AM – 15" of snow in last 72 hours
45" – Winterplace, WV – 10° this AM – 4" of snow in last 72 hours
42" – Ski Beech, NC – 0° this AM – 11.2" of snow in last 72 hours
40" – Sugar Mountain, NC – 0° this AM – 10" of snow in the last 72 hours
29" – Wolf Ridge, NC – 1.5° this AM – 8" of snow in last 72 hours
24.5" – Cataloochee, NC – 2° this AM – 4" of snow in last 72 hours
22.5" – Appalachian, NC – 8° this AM – 4" of snow in last 72 hours
11" – Ober Gatlinburg, TN – 7° this AM – 7" of snow in the last 72 hours
3" – Bryce Resort, VA – 18° this AM – no snow reported in the last 72 hours
2" – Wintergreen, VA – 7° this AM – no snow reported in the last 72 hours
1" – Massanutten, VA – 7° this AM – no snow in the last 72 hours
(You’ll notice that we only reported 14 ski areas. Sapphire and The Homestead have not been reporting much this season and therefore we’re not including them.)
You’ll also notice that all of the WV, MD and NC resorts have had consistent snows this season, while the VA resorts have been snow starved. Every single storm system this season has basically bypassed and skipped over VA and left significant snows across the rest of the mountains of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic.
WHAT PERCENTAGE AND HOW MANY TRAILS ARE OPEN???
We received exactly 17 emails of this nature with the best one coming from David Jennings of Kent Island, Maryland who wrote, "I think you people do a decent job of posting the ski reports for each ski slope, but it would be better if you told us how many slopes were open and what percentage of their mountain was skiable. Decent job otherwise."
Hmmmm. Thanks for heaping all of that praise on us David! You kind of get the feeling that David is a low key kind of guy. Faced by Mt. Everest he’d probably say, "Decent hill there."
Just kidding David. First some clarity. We don’t post the ski reports for each SLOPE, but rather each ski area. Ski areas have slopes. As per how many are open at each ski area – we DO post that. We don’t post percentages all the time, because we don’t like doing the math everyday and don’t think that most of our target audience cares that much about it. However, since you do, we provide that today.
Denise Arnette of College Park, Maryland wrote, "You guys have the best website for skiing, bar none. Cool stuff! I thought it would be nice to show how much terrain is open at each resort. Kind of like a percentage to show which resort has the most area open."
Well, Denise seems to be asking for percentages as well! She seems nicer than David, probably cuter AND she heaped on some praise with her request. Denise – this ones for you!
We separated these numbers by state for the remaining emailers that asked for that information.
North Carolina, technically has 67 trails open but we are not providing Sapphire’s 2 slopes since they don’t seem to be thinking of themselves as a ski area anymore. We also rank them by the number of slopes open.
Sugar – 100% – 20 trails open
Cat – 100% – 14 trails open
Beech – 73% – 11 trails open
App – 100% – 10 trails open
Wolf Ridge – 50% – 10 trails open
Virginia actually has 46 trails open with The Homestead’s three, but they too don’t consider themselves a ski area. If they did, they tell people what they have open. They don’t, so we aren’t.
Wintergreen – 81% – 21 trails open
Massanutten – 100% – 14 trails open
Bryce – 100% – 8 trails open
West Virginia has a whopping 140 trails open and all four ski areas actually act like ski areas 🙂 (Okay WV DOES have another seldom heard about "ski area" called Oglebay and it’s another one of those "resorts and conference centers" that actually is more of a spa, golf, destination than a ski area. They do have ONE slope that is 815′ with a vert of 168′ but even the switchboard gal didn’t know how many slopes they have.)
Snowshoe – 90% – 54 trails open
Canaan Valley – 95% – 37 trails open
Timberline – 76% – 28 trails open
Winterplace – 75% – 21 trails open
Maryland’s lone ski area is Wisp and it is located in that little notch of Maryland that someone screwed up navigating around and accidently left it out of West Virginia!
Wisp – 89% – 31 trails open
Tennessee also has one lone resort and here we go.
Ober – 75% – 6 trails open
HERE ARE A COUPLE OF SHORT NOTES…
Ski Beech opens Upper and Lower White Lightning today and that now gives them 11 of 15 trails open (including Crossway, a seldom used crossing trail between Upper Shawneehaw and Robbins Run). Tubing is also open and conditions are super. Beech has now received 11.2" of snow in the last 72 hours, 17.8" of snow in the month of January (about an inch a day through today) and 42" on the season!
Wolf Ridge’s Michael Hampton wrote, "We have received about 8 inches of natural snow and are continuing to make snow on 6 slopes, including The Howling, and Timberwolf. Look for more terrain to open by the weekend."
While all of the mountains of the North Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland have been getting consistent snows this month, check out these figures from up at Canaan Valley and Timberline:
4.7" of snow over the last 24 hours
9.8" in the last 48 hours
14.8" in the last 72 hours
51.7" this month (20 days)
122.0" on the season!
Canaan Valley has opened 37 trails up and all but Ramble Cutback and Easy Does It are open!
So enjoy the snow and Until Next time…
Be sure to visit www.SkiSoutheast.com for more news from the rest of the Southeast and Mid Atlantic ski areas!
Send your snow photos, videos, comments or emails to: [email protected]