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Dense snowflakes coat the slopes of Beech Mountain Resort, creating soft, white terrain for the Sunday skiers. Although the mountain hasn’t seen snowfall in days, visitors glide through flurries that buzzing snow machines are shooting onto runs. The flakes glisten in the warm alpine sun as they fall.
Days without natural snow are becoming more common as North Carolina’s climate warms and precipitation patterns shift. That means the state’s six ski areas, including Beech Mountain near Banner Elk, have become ever more reliant on machines to keep the slopes white for the thousands of visitors who come to Western North Carolina to ski each winter.
The North Carolina Ski Areas Association estimates the state’s ski industry welcomed more than 780,000 skiers and brought in $66 million in revenue in the 2022-23 season alone. Including direct visitor expenditures, like lodging, dining, and shopping, North Carolina ski resorts contributed $148 million to the state’s economy. The industry also employs some 1,700 seasonal workers.
It’s been a growing industry for the state. The 2012-13 season brought in roughly 576,000 skiers, while 2002-03 saw 544,000. Profits have also boomed. Calculating for inflation, total revenue has increased 77 percent in the last 20 years.
Winter tourism is a valuable part of the mountain economy, said Johnathan Sugg, a climatologist and Appalachian State University professor. But resorts have had to adapt as the effects of climate change have started to show up locally over the last several decades.
Climate change has increasingly impacted our weather over the last 10 years. Boone meteorologist Ray Russell forecasts the 2024-25 winter temperatures in southern Appalachia will be 1-2 degrees warmer than average, on trend with warming temperatures over the last five years. Snowfall, Russell predicts, will be 10-20 percent below the 10-year average and 70 percent below the 65-year average.
According to a 2020 report by the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies, the state’s climate has already warmed 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1895, compared with the global average of 1.8 degrees.
Yet, the last 10 years have been the state’s warmest decade in recorded history. The report’s authors wrote scientists have “very high confidence” that current climate warming is attributed to human activity and are “virtually certain” trends will continue upward. By 2050, North Carolina’s average temperatures are projected to increase another 2-4 degrees Fahrenheit.
As winter temperatures climb and precipitation becomes unpredictable, the future of the East Coast’s southernmost skiing destination may seem to be on thin ice. But skiers like Atlanta resident Larry Hurst, who has come here for 57 years, says he’s not concerned.
“It’s funny; you don’t actually need any snow in North Carolina to have a ski resort,” he said. “It’s all man-made, and any natural snow is just a bonus.”
Since his family began skiing at Sugar Mountain Resort in the early 1970s, Hurst said recent improvements in snow machine technology have “bailed out” the ski industry.
“In the ’70s, we had really cold winters, and so there weren’t really a lot of problems,” the 60-year-old Hurst said. “But starting in the ’80s, there would be warmer winters with very little snow.”
Technological Innovations in Snow
Although snow machine technology had made its way to North Carolina resorts by the ’80s, slopes were still reliant on natural snowfall until more recently. Hurst can remember ski seasons 40 years ago when Sugar Mountain was closed more than it was open.
“Our local ski areas took it really seriously to invest in their infrastructure to withstand lower snow amounts,” said Russell, the Boone meteorologist. “Give any of our ski slopes one good cold all day, and they put enough snow on the slopes to ski for weeks.”
Some skiers may be skeptical of machine-made snow, Hurst said, but skiing in North Carolina has “never been better in my lifetime.”
All six of the state’s ski resorts opened between 1961 and 1970. Compared with typical climate conditions, Appalachian State’s Sugg said the ’60s and ’70s were “extremely cold and snowy” outside of the average.
Snowfall in the ’60s averaged about 53 inches a winter, decreasing to about 45 inches in the ’80s. According to Russell, annual average snowfall today is down by half since the ’80s, with the 10-year average from 2014-24 about 24 inches.
Compared with the rest of the state, Western North Carolina’s climate has had relatively stable temperatures over the past 100 years, leading some researchers to controversially label the region a “climate change haven.” But the region has started feeling more effects of late, from wildfires to the severe inland flooding during last year’s Hurricane Helene, Sugg said, with both trends linked to human-caused global warming.
Mountain tourism is recovering post-Helene, and ski resorts have bounced back. Drew Stanley, marketing director at Appalachian Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock, said lift ticket sales remain on par with previous years. Appalachian Ski’s 27 acres are lined with 13 runs and three chair lifts. The mountain is also home to the South’s largest independent ski school, the French-Swiss Ski College. According to Appalachian Ski’s website, the school has taught more than 1 million people to ski since its founding in 1962.
As the state’s temperatures have risen over the last decade, so have visits to North Carolina resorts. Nearly a third of visitors to North Carolina ski areas are first-time or beginner skiers.
“I would say that, actually, improvements in technology and investment in snowmaking have made our seasons far more dependable than they have been historically,” said Stanley. “We’re able to open with more slopes, a deeper base, and better conditions than ever before thanks to snowmaking technology.”
Appalachian Ski can convert 6 million gallons of water to snow a day under ideal conditions–making 1-2 inches of snow an hour. “It depends on temperature, humidity, and what kind of snow we’re making,” Stanley said. The machines can make anything from dry, powdery snow ideal for skiing to heavier base snow, creating slope depths of more than 100 inches by midseason.
Both Beech Mountain and Appalachian Ski use reclaimed water, including pooling snow melt in artificial collection ponds, to create new snow production. Both ski areas have invested in energy-efficient machines and prioritize water conservation.
The largest and most common snow machines, called snow cannons, can cost more than $30,000. According to Ambipar Response, a crisis environmental consulting firm, snow cannons require only 10-25 percent of the energy used by other types of snow machine technology, called snow guns. Snow guns are smaller and older versions of snow machine technology, costing up to $6,000 each.
Shifting Business Models
Although snowmaking has kept the slopes open, some resorts are rethinking their business models to welcome tourists throughout the warmer months. When the snow melts in the spring, both Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain convert their slopes to mountain bike trails and use ski lifts to ferry bikers up the mountain.
Beech Mountain also offers scenic lift rides, disc golf, live music, and a summer concert series, according to Talia Freeman, director of marketing at Beech Mountain Resort.
Freeman said warming trends are not a concern for Beech Mountain Resort; it has always dealt with shifting weather patterns and fluctuating conditions. “The industry as a whole has continuously evolved, expanding offerings beyond skiing to ensure a strong, year-round business model,” she wrote in a Feb. 11 email. “These challenges are not new, and adapting to them has always been part of what we do.”
An expanded season means additional costs, including seasonal staffing in both the winter and the summer. But the new model has paid off. “Our numbers are up significantly,” she added. “Tourism has remained strong.”
With or without natural snow, North Carolina ski areas have continued to attract tourists and sell thousands of lift tickets. Some resorts, like Beech Mountain, are not aiming for survival, but resilience.
They’ll have to, said Russell, the meteorologist.
“If you’re not today considering how climate change is going to affect your business, you’re behind the game,” he said. “You got to be thinking about it.”
Ella Adams is a Boone-based journalist and editor for The Appalachian. She is an undergraduate anthropology student at Appalachian State University. Her work includes long-form features, narrative journalism, and ethnographic journalism.