Thanksgiving week starts out under snow in Tucker County, others

TUCKER COUNTY, W.Va. — Cross-country skiers were out at White Grass Touring Center in Tucker County on Sunday doing the 1st skiing of the season in West Virginia alongside snowshoers following some significant snowfall ahead of the winter season.

At Canaan Heights, the location of White Grass Touring Center, snow totals by Monday morning measured more than eight inches.

“The winds are really heavy so it’s drifted, but it’s deep in the woods and places where it caught the snow,” reported Brian Sarfino, marketing manager for the Tucker County Convention and Visitors Bureau which is located in Davis, on Monday.

In Cortland, also in Tucker County, an observer for the National Weather Service measured 9.5 inches by Sunday morning. A separate observer in Davis reported 10.7 inches as of 7 a.m. Monday.

Those were among the highest snow totals anywhere in West Virginia.

Snow started falling in parts of Tucker County around 12 p.m. Saturday and continued into the early morning hours on Monday.

That was when Winter Weather Advisories from the National Weather Service were lifted in Preston County, Tucker County and eastern Monongalia County.

On Monday morning, NWS observers in Preston County reported five inches of snow on the ground in Terra Alta and three inches in Rowlesburg.

Sarfino said Tucker County can, at times, be a weather anomaly.

“It can just snow and snow and snow and nobody would ever know it because it doesn’t show up on radar,” Sarfino said. “Between 3,000 feet and 4,000 feet, we definitely catch Mother Nature at its finest or worst, depends on how you want to look at it.”

Each year, he said chances for a white Thanksgiving in Tucker County are “about 50/50.”

As of Monday morning, snowmaking operations were up and running at Canaan Valley Resort ahead of a planned opening day for skiing and snowboarding on Dec. 10. The 1st day at Timberline was tentatively set for Dec. 16.

In Pocahontas County, Snowshoe Mountain Resort was scheduled to open Saturday, Nov. 26, but officials there were not ruling out a Wednesday opening with limited terrain.

Snowmaking also launched this weekend at Winterplace Resort in Raleigh County where no target opening date for the 2016-2017 season had been set as of Monday.

The 1st official day of winter is Wednesday, Dec. 21.





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