The Entire Region is a Snow Globe; Best Conditions in Years

The most snow in decades? Not so much, but check out the details below.

You guys are missing out if you haven’t visited the Ski Cams this morning.

Today’s Photo of the Day was submitted by Lynn Swann of Omni Homestead Resort. Thanks Lynn!

All of our ski resort ops were so busy this morning dealing with all of the snow, that photo ops were a little limited, so I took a moment and did a LIVE Facebook feed. Here’s that video.

Everywhere I tuned in to view one of the resort LIVE CAMS it was snowing this morning.

Appalachian. Check.
Beech Mountain. Check.
Boone. Check.
Blowing Rock. Check.
Bryce Resort. Check.
Canaan Valley. Check.
Cataloochee. Check.
Gatlinburg. Check.
Homestead Resort. Check.
Massanutten. Check.
Sapphire Valley. Check.
Snowshoe. Check.
Sugar Mountain. Check.
Timberline. Check.
Waynesville. Check.
Wintergreen. Check.
Winterplace. Check.
Wisp Resort. Check.
Wolf Ridge. Check.

First Time That Every Ski Resort in the Region Had Snow Overnight?!?!?!

I’ve been doing SkiSoutheast for 26 seasons now. I am positive that we had significant snowfall at every resort in the region back in 1993 during the “Blizzard of ’93”. However, I didn’t start SkiSoutheast (actually SkiNC) until 1995. Since that time, I can’t remember a day when every ski resort within our coverage area had significant snowfall in the same 24 hour period since. I’m certain we have, but without question it has been a few years.

Every ski resort in the region picked up at least 2″ of snowfall overnight, with Winterplace Resort, in West Virginia getting 7″ and Massanutten, Wintergreen and The Homestead resorts in Virginia coming in a close second with 5-6″ of snowfall.

…and it is STILL SNOWING across the entire region as of this writing at 8:30am.

Sunday will be one HELL of an EPIC day to be on the snow…and so will Monday (if you don’t want to fight the crowds and play hooky from school or work.)

We’re on Consecutive DAY 39 with Snow on the Ground.

We’ve Seen Natural Snowfall on 40% of the Days Since December 1st.

We have HAD some amazingly, awesome weather and really since December 1st. I looked at some of the archives for cold temps and snow and in the 68 days since December 1, 2020, we’ve seen natural snowfall on 27 of those days. My trusted calculator reveals that over the last two-plus months, we have experienced snowfall on a whopping 40% of those days! (Based on weather data pulled from Sugar and Beech Mountain snow archives that we track here on SkiSoutheast.)

Here’s the latest “WHITE GOLD” Numbers overnight:

Come on…does ANYONE else give you guys this kind of intel? I don’t think so. 😉

* Canaan Valley has 20″ of snow on the ground. Cross Country anyone?

*** We have an idea that most resort mountain crews will be so stressed and worn out from the challenges of this season and the crowds, that we COULD see some earlier closures than usual. All of this is weather dependent.

This season! Wow! Unbelievable!

Insert your exclamation. It fits! Whether you want to talk about the crowds, the consistently cold temperatures or the SNOW – it has all been great. I talk about the word “perception” a lot on this website because often the difference between that and reality is blurred. I have recently shared a fair number of emails and social media shares from people who are frustrated with the fact that they are not able to get lift passes or snow tubing tickets for weekend sessions. Some have even expressed that problem only AFTER driving for several hours and showing up without making plans in advance.

Hopefully, people are getting the message that we continue to spread – that you simply HAVE to plan ahead to ski & ride this season.

However, today I want to accentuate the positive…and that positive is the fact that despite some frustrations from those who might not have thought or planned ahead – hundreds of thousands of skiers, snowboarders and lovers of snow are enjoying a truly fantastic ski season. Every one of the resorts are seeing VERY (VERY) good traffic this season and not JUST on the weekends, but on most weekdays as well.

No, Virginia, This ISN’T the SNOWIEST Winter in Decades, But it HAS BEEN AWESOME!

I have received numerous emails lately from people either claiming that this season is the snowiest in decades OR asking if it has been. The answer is “no” this is not the snowiest winter we’ve seen in decades. In fact, the West Virginia mountain ski resorts are actually around 18″ BELOW NORMAL for this time of year. Check the chart out above and you can see that EIGHT of the SIXTEEN resorts are BELOW NORMAL snowfall for this point in the season, whereas EIGHT are above normal. Beech and Sugar mountains are nearly two-and-a-half FEET ABOVE NORMAL so far this season. In fact, Beech Mountain Resort is just 2″ below their total for a FULL WINTER and we still have about 42 days of ski & snowboarding season left!

(I told you…perception is a funny thing.)

Today’s Shares

Lynn Swann of Omni Homestead Resort in gorgeous, historic Hot Springs, Virginia sent in these nice photos. Click on ANY to Enlarge!

Check out this Snowshoe photo.

Nice photo from Timberline Mountain

A Frozen and Snowy Deep Creek Lake is a sweet photo op

Check out today’s SNOW REPORT for the snowy details.

A PodCast In Our Future???

Joe Stevens of “Snow News is Good News”, called me a week or so ago and mentioned the idea of us starting a podcast for the region’s ski resorts. We’ve talked about that a few times over the last two years with various members of our team and I think we’re going to do it.

We’ll share stories from around the region and bring in guest resort owners and marketing peeps. We’re targeting the end of February to launch things.

We’d LOVE to hear from you. If you have ideas for episode subjects and themes, let us know. We’re also considering many names for it. If you have a suggestion, let us know.

That will do it for me today. Email me anything you like at [email protected]