Forecasters have backed off from their predictions earlier this week of a potential big snowstorm, but it looks like Asheville will still see a dusting of snow on Christmas Day.
“Energy from the northern and southern branches of the Jet Stream will be unable to come together or ‘phase’ to create a significant East Coast snow storm this holiday weekend,” explains Ray’s Weather Center. “Instead, we will have a potent upper level trough of low pressure coming through on Christmas Day to generate just light snow or flurries.”
However, the local weather outlet cautions that “probably more significant snow accumulation will occur Saturday night through Sunday as a cold ‘northwest flow’ snow shower regime develops across the Southern Appalachians.”
Other forecasters seem to agree, with the National Weather Service calling for a 40 percent chance of snow on Christmas Eve with accumulation of “less than an inch possible.” On Christmas Day, the NWS predicts a 60 percent chance of snow – again, with “less “less than an inch possible.” AccuWeather.com also predicts that between one to three inches of snow will fall in the city on Saturday.
As is usually the case, it looks like the higher mountains north of town are destined to get much more snow than the French Broad River Valley, with Ray’s predicting up to a foot of powder falling between now and Monday. It’s great news for local ski areas, which have been reporting better-than-normal early season conditions.
Regardless of how much snow we get, it’s going to be cold weekend. Rays predicts that high temperatures will only reach into the mid-thirties on Saturday, with even colder, winder conditions blowing in on Sunday.
Photos by Jake Frankel
We all gasped when we read this headline Xmas a.m. wondering why Xpress (and Citizen Times) would so irresponsibly publish this “news” when even conservatively, you’d want any travelers to take precautions. We have 13” in Marshall NC and the “dusting”, though we are snow lovers and are loving it, has become a very, very serious problem for many. How totally misleading, dangerous, and unprofessional to publish such odd information.
“How totally misleading, dangerous, and unprofessional to publish such odd information. ”
Umm…. WHAT??