Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! {Liberty Mountain Resort, Carroll Valley PA}

How many inches of snow did you have at your house this morning? We've got almost a foot of natural snow here at Liberty and it's still coming down! Here's a picture to prove it:

That's over 7 inches of snow just lying on our outside tables! Add 7 inches to the already 16-24 inch base on the mountain and that equals TONS of snow, and lots of good, fresh powder!

So how much more snow are we going to get? Accuweather is predicting accummulation throughout the day until about 1am tomorrow morning. NOAA predicts totals to reach 9 to 13 inches of snow just for today. It's hard to decide which forecast predictions to follow, especially when they all say something a little different. That's when we bring in Andy Beck - Liberty's unofficial in-house meteorologist!

Andy studied Meteorology and Weather Risk Management at Penn State University and just recently joined our Liberty Hotel staff. As a ski resort, we depend very heavily on the weather so when our "trusty" forecasts are hard to believe, we pick Andy's brain to see what he thinks Mother Nature is going to bring.

This picture of Andy was taken at 4:30pm last night (Friday evening). He was patiently waiting for the first flakes to fall...

We talked with Andy last night about our first winter storm and he said "It's going to be pretty good." And by "pretty good" Andy means we're getting lots of snow. Andy believes we'll receive at least 7 to 10 inches of snow from the storm, and based on the ruler picture above, I'd say he's right so far. Andy says that tracking the storm route is key to predicting how much snow we'll receive - the closer the storm is to the coast, the more snow we'll get. Andy added that "even a 20 mile difference could mean 4 more inches of snow."

Andy is predicting the heaviest of the storm to come tonight. "We could see 1 inch per hour rates of snow fall and that's heavy", Andy shared. Can you imagine 1 inch of snow per hour on top of everything that we've already received and will receive as the day progresses? It'll be interesting to see what the rest of the storm brings us...

Thanks for taking the time to share your predictions, Andy! Stay tuned for more winter storm updates. TAKE A SNOW DAY!