Let It Snow!

In North Carolina, when we want to know how bad a winter will be, we examine the woolly worm.

Forget your vague hints about Spring given by Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil and other upstart groundhogs. The woolly worm gives specific predictions for every week of Winter.

Each worm, actually a caterpillar, has 13 segments of black and brown, said to correspond to the 13 weeks of winter between Dec. 21 and March 15. The darker and - well, woollier - a segment is, the colder and snowier the weather that week is expected to be.

Every year on the third weekend in October, thousands of folks gather in the little town of Banner Elk, located in the valley between North Carolina's two largest ski resorts on Sugar and Beech mountains, for the Woolly Worm Festival. The winning worm must prove its mettle in numerous heats against all comers in a climb up a three-foot long string for its chance to predict the coming winter's weather.

How good are woolly worms at predicting weather? Since the festival began over 30 years ago, the worms have been correct over 85 percent of the time, beating out most professional weather forecasters.

Snow means more than nice winter scenery to people in these parts - it's the key to economic good times or bad.

Skiing and other winter sports in the North Carolina mountains contribute more than $120 million every year to the local economies. And it all rests on a fluffy, frozen blanket of white.

It sometimes comes as a surprise to new residents of NC when they discover the state's thriving ski industry.

In fact, North Carolina, with a dozen resorts devoted to winter sports and the highest mountains in the eastern United States, can boast skiing as good, or better, than resorts in the Northeast or West Virginia.

North Carolina's mountains possess the one natural element vital to snowmaking - elevation. Average temperature drops about 4° F for every 1000 feet of elevation. At 5505 feet, Ski Beech boasts the highest elevation of any ski resort in the eastern U.S. Cataloochee in Maggie Valley and Sugar Mountain in Banner Elk are close behind at 5400 feet and 5300 feet respectively.

Ski seasons in North Carolina normally run from Thanksgiving to mid-March, not significantly shorter than what you find at Northeastern resorts.

But ski areas dare not depend on the natural stuff predicted by the woollies. They make their own snow.

If you have been to the mountains during the winter, you perhaps have heard the deep-throated roar of the snow cannons, shooting an artificial blizzard onto the slopes.

Snowmaking itself has come a long way since its first application during an especially snowless winter in the early 1950s. Early machines were constructed from paint sprayers and garden hose.

Today, international companies invest millions in making increasingly energy efficient systems to "weatherproof" winter resorts.

Some years, NC ski areas enjoy 150 days of snow-and money-making.

Thanks to improvements in its snowmaking capabilities, Cataloochee in Maggie Valley is often the first resort in the Southeast to open for the season, sometimes putting its lifts in motion a full month before the traditional Thanksgiving kickoff.

Snowmaking equipment represents a significant and ongoing investment for NC ski resorts.

Sugar Mountain Resort recently spent $300,000 on upgrading its operation, replacing pipes and adding new snow machines, while Ski Beech added 56 high-tech snow guns. Appalachian Ski Mountain, boasting the greatest snowmaking capacity per acre in the Southeast, invested $2.5 million in recent years on a massive system of tower fans guns designed to maximize snow coverage.

While downhill skiing retains its traditional appeal, the boarding boom has had a tremendous impact on winter sports. Wide open terrains suitable for snowboarding are now a must at full-service resorts, and everything from scooters to kiteboards have been adapted for use on the snow.

Tubing, a safe and family friendly way to get up close and personal with the white stuff, expanded hugely in the last few years. Several resorts, including Hawksnest outside of Boone and Scaly Mountain near Highlands, now offer tubing exclusively.

Other tubing parks are located in Hendersonville and Linville, and most ski areas now offers tubing runs, often lighted for night fun.

You don't even have to master the sometimes intimidating ski lifts to tube-most runs ride you back to the top aboard a "magic carpet" that is basically a moving sidewalk. You may not even have to get out of your tube.

Whatever takes you to the snowy slopes of NC's western mountains, stop a moment to listen for the snow guns and appreciate the folks who work through the night all winter making and grooming the snow for all to enjoy.

Find more information at www.goskinc.com and www.visitnc.com.

The pictures on this page were taken at Cataloochee Resort.