As frigid overnight temperatures hit West Virginia’s mountains, ski resorts will use snowmaking machines to blanket slopes with thousands of tons of snow. After a warm start to skiing season, resorts like Winterplace will take advantage of single-digit temperatures to prepare slopes for skiers. The computerized snow machines spray 7,000 gallons of water per minute and run 24 hours a day.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After a warm start to winter, frigid overnight temperatures in West Virginia’s mountains will aid snow-making efforts at the state’s ski resorts, which plan to start opening more slopes this week.
“It’s going to be in the single-digits tonight,” Joe Stevens, communications director for the West Virginia Ski Association, said Monday.
At Winterplace Ski Resort, where workers over the weekend have been blanketing the resort’s 90 acres of ski slopes with snow, temperatures will drop overnight to about 13 degrees.
“This is one of those nights that are optimal for snowmaking,” Stevens said, adding that the state’s ski resorts would use the drop in temperature to aid their snow-making processes. He said resorts across the state would use high-tech snowmaking machines to produce and blanket slopes with about 20,000 tons of snow each hour Monday night.
“There will be a man-made blizzard in the mountains of West Virginia tonight…