Tuesday night I walked out of work in Johnson City TN. I checked the radar, and saw no precipatation levels. So I thought it was just low level snow, which wouldn't last long. And a slight snow flurry was coming down. But weather forecast called for flurries all next day with no wind and highs in the 40s for the cities. So I would estimated probably a high of 20 for the mountains
I woke up Wednesday morning to see a nice inch or two out my window. But none on the streets. I drove down to Erwin to check out the mountains. Unaka was barely visible and white. But Erwin was the same, an inch or two on the ground, none on the roads. So I drove up to Devils Fork Gap, here comes the blizzard. As soon as I took turn up TN352, the snow just came down. I passed a few farms where there seemed more than a foot. I got to the trailhead, and TDOT & NCDOT plowed huge piles of snow in the turnout. But when I looked at the trail it was a good 5-6 inches. I turned around and headed back to Erwin.
I drove up to Indian Grave Gap hoping to hike to Beauty Spot and play in the snow. But when I saw the trail, it too was a good 4-5 inches.
So I drove down to Rock Creek Rec area hoping to hike some of the lower elevation trails. I hiked up Rock Creek Falls Trail. The initial hike in was not tough. The trailhead only had a couple inches and the sun seemed to peeking out of the clouds. But once I got up to the waterfalls, there was a good 3-4 inches of snow. Whats funny was I that I was just here the other day, and it was about 40-50 degrees. But after 2.5 miles of a good climb and a few fords. I reached the falls got a few pics, and headed back down. But when I was hiking down, it was the most hiliarous thing to watch. I was hanging on the rodos try not to slide down. I was shuffling through the snow. When I got down to my car and looked in the mirror, I looked like a damn yetti, covered head to toe in white snow.
Hope you Nobos were not stuck on the mountain tops in this. This was a sudden snow fall.