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Ray’s Weather Bids Farewell to the Snowman-O-Meter Until Next Winter

By Nathan Ham

With temperatures reaching into the upper 60s and lower 70s for most of the week, it appears that the feel of springtime and warmer weather has officially come to stay in the High Country.

Low temperatures at night will still remain in the upper 40s towards the end of the week, however, high temperatures will continue to feel nice and warm.

According to Ray’s Weather Center, Friday appears to be the only day this week with a chance of rain with some daytime showers. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday all look to have a decent amount of sunshine. Ray has also changed his weather forecasting graphic from the Snowman-O-Meter to the official weather raccoon of MerleFest, which is happening this week in Wilkesboro.

Snow totals in the High Country did not quite reach the level that many predicted for the 2018-19 winter season. Boone received 31.5 inches of snow for the season, however, 16.5 inches of that snowfall came during the big winter storm that took place December 9-10. The rest of the winter saw just 14 inches of snowfall.

Breaking it down by monthly totals, Boone received 1.4 inches of snow in November, 23.5 inches of snow in December, 3.6 inches of snow in January, 2.5 inches of snow in February and a half-inch of snow in March.

Beech Mountain received 52.2 inches of snow for the winter with December being the wettest month with 28.5 inches of snow.

Sugar Mountain had the most snow in the High Country with 66.8 inches overall with 37 inches of that coming between December 4 and December 24.