White at the end of the tunnel
December 15, 2004
29 posts
16 users
4k+ views
Ck the web cams! 4" at sugar,NC this morn..Timberline is all white at 1230pm sat...Interesting to see just the very tops of wisp & 7springs a little frosty showing the elevation diff.Cold & snow shots as far as the extended F-casts can see.Thoughts of bolting for whiteface are not quite as intense now!
Yeah, I just saw the Wisp webcams. Hard to believe NC is getting consistent snow but Wisp and 7springs are still on the fringes like that. John said awhile back that NC gets the cold before us and I guess he's right. Beech had over 2 inches early this morning (raysweather.com)
skimadriver.com (columbus oh) is showing elevation snow at the top of their resort and it only has a vert of 300'. Now that's close.
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Hard to believe NC is getting consistent snow but Wisp and 7springs are still on the fringes like that.
Altitude. That's why it can be summer in Salt Lake City, and winter at Alta. It's also why the East can have variable conditions due to rain. 
Hehe,
I noticed I have been ranting in my posts a bit latly. It must be because I am suffering from Mid-atlantic pattern snow deprivation disorder. Its a new disease just recongnizes by the FDA. Treatments are in development and an "experimental" biotech startup in SLC,UT is has a local clinical trial going for extreme cases only.
Sugar's summit, Banner Elk, Wolf Laurel (central NC no less!), Hawksnest, and Appalachian all showing snow on the ground as of 3:00 p.m. 12/11/04. T-line showing snow but Dolly Sods cam just showing wet? Strange. Snowshoe reporting 2 inches as of this morning.
Eight inches or more in high country of NC and TN (above 2500 feet) and up to Mount Rogers in VA down here. Bluefield is getting snow but it's still 45 here in Blacksburg on the other side of the ridges. I'm betting it's snowing at Mountain Lake right now. Definitely need to take a gander up there tomorrow morning to see how it looks... bring the x-c equipment *just in case*...
The one thing that can be said about x-c skiing: you don't need to wait for slopes to be groomed or snow to be made. If snow falls, you're ready to go!
Snowing in all of Canaan Valley. Need I say more.
AND
The entire top to bottom slopes are covered at wisp with snow getting heavier!!
You just beat me.
Timberline better turn those guns on tonight. There's no excuse for holding back now.
John - the CV forrestry service cam shows it's 28*F and 94% humidity. If I remember my wet bulb scale right, it has to be around 27*F with high humidty to turn the guns on...right? So they should almost be running them now.
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John - the CV forrestry service cam shows it's 28*F and 94% humidity. If I remember my wet bulb scale right, it has to be around 27*F with high humidty to turn the guns on...right? So they should almost be running them now.
My "backchannel" to Snowshoe, 4,000 ft, is saying that the wet bulb is about 31. I suspect the snowmakers at Timberline will wait a few hours for temps to fall further before letting the snow guns rip.
And with that snow, I'm driving to NC tomorrow. I was planning on going to see my buddy anyway but this just spurs me to go earlier.
Prelim perusals look like NC and TN got the best of this one. Sugar is reporting six inches of new snow, Snowshoe four inches, no updates yet out of CV but judging by the Dolly Sods cam and trends I'm gonna guess two inches? Maybe four? And of course the untallied behemoths: Great Smokies, Roan, Mount Rogers. Judging by the lower elevation reports from down south, Roan probably walked away the big winner of this storm.
Blacksburg: dry ground but cold. Better chance of snow sticking here in the New River and Greenbrier Valleys on Monday. Should give a nice Christmas feel by Tuesday. Will let y'all know about Mountain Lake later this afternoon. Would be surprised if there's more than a couple inches up there though.
Bawalker- any word out of Wardensville? Any other reports from the mtns this morning?
Snow in CV but by accounts only about and inch and a half. Still a lot of green showing and the ground is still a little too warm. The Sub 30 degree nights should help on the snowmaking for TL and CV but until these temps dip and stay down long enough to put a freeze on the ground, snow retention will not be optimal. According to forecasts Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday are all in the 20's during the day for a high and in the teens at night. Thursday is going to be in the high 30's and sunny but all in all it looks like this week will put an end to CV's unseasonably warm temps. Bring on the snow!!!
Murphy my buddy has a house on Snake Mtn. That's where I'm headed. I'll bring back some pics.
You want a little salve for the soul. Look at Wisp's and 7 Spring's webcams. Drop a few inches of natural on it tonight and we will be money
FAYETTE PA-GARRETT MD-INDIANA PA-PRESTON WV-TUCKER WV- WESTMORELAND PA- 444 AM EST MON DEC 13 2004
... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 10 AM EST TUESDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PITTSBURGH PA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING.
NOAA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAYS SNOW SHOWERS CAN BRING BETWEEN 4 AND 8 INCHES OF SNOW TO SOME LOCATIONS NEAR THE MOUNTAIN RIDGES IN THESE COUNTIES BETWEEN THIS AFTERNOON AND TUESDAY MORNING.
Looks like Snowshoe, Timberline, Wisp and Seven Springs should have good conditions next weekend. Unfortunately, from their websites, Whitetail, Liberty and Roundtop did not make any snow last night.
They will prolly start tonight. It should be cold enough. By this weekend I'd imagine they'll open with beginner terrain. Anyone know if they rent snowblades? I'd like to try it and opening weekend would be a good time to do it, I'm not worried about riding if they don't have much open.
Well, when I woke up this morning, it was already up to 40deg, so no surprise that no snow was made at RT, Lib or WT.
RT might fire up tonight, but they'll probably wait until Tuesday eve to get started.
I'd expect (hope) Minuteman, Exhibition, Fife&Drum and the far beginner slope ready for the wknd.
Anyone know what's happening up at Elk? They've been colder than us for the last few days, but they haven't been too quick to update the website....
Edit to Add:
OOOPS, just checked the RT web page, they say they'll begin blowing snow tonight....
Has anyone seen the Timberline Web Cam? What a beautiful site!!!!!!!
Whitetail's website has been updated and states that they'll also be making snow tonight. I don't know if they'll be able to get at least one trail off the high-speed open for this weekend.
If they can, there will be so many yahoo's on the mountain you better wear your helmet!!!!
Yeah ... we're off to Snowshoe for a 4 day weekend. We booked this back in September thinking they would be fully open. Now I imagine the place will be a friggin zoo! They always open the green terrain first so all of the kamikazes are going to be sharing hill time with beginners.. a recipe for disaster. With any kind of luck, Sunday afternoon and Monday morning should be deserted.. just have to survive, literally, until then. Maybe this is the year we will finally make the trek to Silver Creek for Saturday.. I hear those runs are practically empty on weekends. Is that true or an urban myth?
Silver Creek is definitely quiter in my opinion and I think the runs are far more fun. Flying Eagle is a pretty nice bomber run.
Tom, i doubt RT will have exhibition by the weekend. my guess is that they get fife, minuteman, fanny and the small park by minuteman open. They may also get the small pipe open. They are saying (via emails) they plan to open on Thursday night.
yeah, Exhibition is wishful thinking, to take some traffic from Minuteman. Figure the racers 'll be chomping to get some gates up.
If they've got MM open for Thursday, I know where I'll be after work.
According to RT's website, they are currently making snow on Exhibition.
