Skier's delight: Snowy end to the 1st week of 2021

Brian Lada
·3 min read

The first full week of January ended with snow blanketing parts of the eastern U.S., painting a wintry scene across the southern Appalachian mountains.

Residents in eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia woke up to accumulating snowfall on Friday morning as a winter storm tracked across the region. This is the same system that spread snow over portions of northwestern Arkansas and southern Missouri on Thursday.

The snow in Virginia led to some less-than-ideal travel conditions. According to the Lee County Sheriff's Office, some roads saw half an inch to an inch of slush on the roads, which led to hazardous driving conditions.

Roads in North Carolina were also coated in snow on Jan. 8 amid a winter storm warning, and plow trucks were seen attempting to clear the roads as snow continued to fall.

More than half a foot of snow piled up in the mountains around Boone and North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, by midday Friday. This is more snow than has fallen in Philadelphia so far this winter, with the city of Brotherly Love having measured 6.6 inches thus far this season.

Wintry conditions slowed travel on sections of Interstates 26, 40 and 81, but it was not enough to cause significant disruptions or highway closures.

For some, the snowfall was a welcome sight.

Tanya Cody of Tallahassee, Florida, said she specifically traveled up to the Asheville, North Carolina, area to experience the wintry weather. "We heard there was a chance of snow, and we just needed to get out of town and it was a perfect time," she told AccuWeather National Reporter Kim Leoffler. "My dogs have never seen snow." Cody was out early Friday morning in Old Fort, about 20 minutes east of Asheville, and her dogs seemed to be enjoying the light accumulation that had collected there.

The heaviest snow was mainly limited to the more mountainous areas, but snow managed to accumulate in some lower elevations such as Asheville and Hickory, North Carolina. A few flakes even fell in Greenville, South Carolina, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

While some cozied up indoors to enjoy the snow falling outside their windows, skiers seized the opportunity and hit the slopes, including Beech Mountain Resort in North Carolina.

"It's getting crowded," Ski Southeast told AccuWeather on Friday morning. "[It] snowed overnight and has been coming down all morning. At this point, [there's] probably 6 inches."

Skiers enjoying the fresh powder at Beech Mountain Resort in North Carolina on Friday, Jan. 8, 2020. (Credit: Ski Southeast)

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Residents across the Southeast will want to keep their winter coat handy as more snow could be in store for the southern Appalachians again on Monday.

At this point, AccuWeather meteorologists believe that this new storm will not be particularly strong once it reaches Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, but it could still spread a swatch of light snow in the higher elevations for the second time in less than a week.

Additional reporting by Kim Leoffler.

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