First, Happy Veteran’s Day. We salute and thank all of you who are reading this update this morning – who have served our country within any branch of the military. You guys rock. We also reflect on the loss of too many who proudly fought battles to allow us the opportunity to live in a safer world and certainly the best country in it.
Again, thank you.
Photo: Our Photo of the Day is a great shot from Beech Mountain Resort as they made snow this past weekend!
NOW…
As I looked around the region this morning, I saw:
48° at Appalachian Ski Mountain
42° at Snowshoe Mountain
42° at Canaan Valley Resort
41° at Beech Mountain Resort
38° at Cataloochee Ski Area
44° at Winterplace Resort
40° at Massanutten Resort
41° at Bryce Resort
Crazy to think that over the last two weekends, we’ve seen snowmaking temperatures that were good enough for ALL of those ski areas to make snow. Crazier still to think that Cataloochee was able to open for a couple of days and that Sugar Mountain opened this past weekend and remains open today for day sessions on six slopes and a reported base of 5-20″.
Editor’s Note: I have received a few hundred emails asking whether we are now promoting Sugar Mountain in our FirsTrax news. We have always included them in our page navigation and Snow Reporting, however as a rule we do not provide much in the way of further promotion of Sugar during the bulk of ski season. That has not changed. However, when they are the ONLY ski resort open, we feel that it is a service to our viewers/readers to make sure they know those details. Sugar is the only ski area that does not support or recognize SkiSoutheast.com as a valuable marketing resource, and all other ski areas in the region do.
So when any of those resorts are open, we are obligated to promote them.
Snow and Cold Heading Our Way!
As I checked out each ski mountain, the coldest spot in the region this morning was Wolf Ridge Resort, over in Mars Hill / Wolf Laurel, North Carolina with a 36° temperature.
So no resort made snow overnight and only Sugar Mountain is open for skiing and snowboarding for this Veteran’s Day Monday.
SNOW IN THE FORECAST, YOU SAY?
On my drive back home on Sunday I noticed that my dash temp showed that it was 64° around Linville Falls. My mind quickly went to, “Hmmm, maybe I can get in a round of golf.”
I had too much to do but the temperatures on Sunday and for portions of today would allow it for sure.
However, a VERY STRONG COLD FRONT will charge into the mountaintops overnight tonight quickly transitioning any light rain that is in the forecast for later this afternoon – into snow showers and light snow.
Some areas on the westward facing slopes may see 1-3″ of snow, whereas most of the High Country is looking at anywhere from a dusting to 1″ and you can ditto that for Cataloochee Ski Area and the Maggie Valley areas.
Gatlinburg and particularly the ski area (Ober Gatlinburg) is looking at perhaps one-half an inch to maybe 1″.
In North Carolina…
Blowing Rock and Appalachian Ski Mountain will more than likely see .5″ to 1″ of snow.
Sugar and Beech Mountain should pick up 1″ or snow.
Wolf Ridge Resort could see 1-2″ of snow.
In Virginia…
Bryce Resort is showing the same rain-to-snow transition and they too should see a dusting to 1″ and possibly a bit more.
Massanutten Resort sometimes misses on some of these quick clipper storms, but they should at least see some snow showers and a dusting to one-half inch.
Omni Resort (The Homestead) is like Massanutten in that they should see some snow falling, but in terms of accumulations – maybe a dusting to 1″.
Wintergreen Resort is in the same general forecast of some snow before noon on Tuesday with quickly falling temps. Probably a dusting to an 1″ of snow possible.
In West Virginia…
The usual, snow-prone areas will see 1-3″ and possibly a burst of a bit more over the Monday night to Wednesday early hours that makes for around 2-4″ of snow.
That COULD be under forecasted as we’re seeing Snowshoe Mountain with a chance at .5″ tonight, 3-5″ on Tuesday and another .5″ Tuesday night…for a chance at 4-5-6″ of snowfall. If Snowshoe gets it, we’d expect Canaan Valley to get it as well. The NWS is forecasting HEAVY AND BLOWING SNOW for Snowshoe.
Winterplace Resort USUALLY sees a smaller fraction of the natural snows that Canaan Valley and Snowshoe see, however, they too are expecting to see 2″-5″ of snowfall.
Wisp Resort in Maryland should see anywhere from 2″-4″ and possibly more in the area of what Snowshoe and Canaan see.
Snow is AWESOME…and Glad to See it in the Forecast, but more importantly check out these snowmaking temperatures for Tuesday and Tuesday night!
Tuesday / Tues Night Temps
Appalachian Ski Mountain Hi 29° Lo 13°
Beech Mountain Resort Hi 28° Lo 10°
Bryce Resort Hi 36° Lo 18°
Canaan Valley Resort Hi 25° Lo 10°
Cataloochee Hi 27° Lo 12°
Massanutten Resort Hi 39° Lo 19°
Ober Gatlinburg Hi 33° Lo 17°
Omni Homestead Hi 30° Lo 15°
Snowshoe Mountain Hi 21° Lo 1°
Sugar Mountain Hi 28° Lo 10°
Wintergreen Resort Hi 40° Lo 19°
Winterplace Resort Hi 24° Lo 12°
Wisp Resort Hi 26° Lo 13°
Wolf Ridge Resort Hi 27° Lo 9°
So look for the snowguns to crank up and blast the slopes at numerous resorts later tonight and at least each night in the next several days.
We will update you on additional resort openings as we’d expect Cataloochee to reopen soon, followed by others with plans to do so within the next 12 days.
Small Tweaks As We Edge Closer to the Season…
While they were not often mentioned on this website, some of you may notice that we are no longer including Oglebay Resort on our Snow Report. They offer (1) slope that measures 815 feet in length and a vertical of 168 feet and to be honest, they rarely updated their own report. Great resort that just happens to include a slope for peeps to ride. So we’re economizing our time a bit by excluding them.
Since Timberline Resort in West Virginia is closed…and maybe forever…we have deleted them from our navigational tab and Snow Report as well.
We are also toying around with some functionality, so every once in a while you could see some odd page loads, etc. We’ll keep those to a minimum as we get ready for “the busy season”.
Until then…here are some nice photos from this morning:
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