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Does anyone know what the average rainfall in Blowing Rock is? I've read upwards of 60 inches and am wondering if that is accurate. That's more than a lot of the Pacific Northwest states get. Is it usually seasonal or a year-round thing?
Blowing Rock (http://cirrus.dnr.state.sc.us/cgi-bin/sercc/cliMAIN.pl?nc0901 - broken link)
66.57 inches average annual precipitation
31.4 inches average snowfall
It's year-round for all the mountains, with the most in the summer, but it's not a constant every day drizzle like Seattle or London. Summer storms, frontal systems... actual rain showers.
Rainfall totals vary in the mountains depending on elevation and what direction ridges face. Downtown Asheville - being in a river basin - only averages 37.86 inches in a year and is the driest area in the state. Some of the southern mountains around Transylvania County get more than 80.
Southeast Regional Climate Center: Historical Climate Summaries for North Carolina (http://www.dnr.sc.gov/climate/sercc/climateinfo/historical/historical_nc.html - broken link)
I posted this to a question about the rainfall in Hickory.
"The weather was a BIG issue for us moving here. What you cannot grasp by studying weather.com as we did was the fact that the rains are usually hit and miss. I drove downtown the other day and was in and out of the rains four times. Also, it is often beautiful when raining. The sun may be shining where you are yet you can see rain falling in the distance. It very seldom rains all day. Have seen it only a few times. Often the rains though constant are very pleasant. Unlike where we came from you still see cloud definition
on a rainy day instead of the totally gray gloom we were used to. This place is simplly gorgeous."
It is a little different in Blowing Rock. There is more rain and FOG. The distant clouds I referred to are often those hugging the mountains.
For anyone that weather is a big issue I encourage them to look at the Foothills area from Marion northeast to Wilksboro. It is protected by the mountains and the crappy weather often seems to skip up and over us.
We get very little or no snow here. If we want to see the snow we can drive up into the mountains.
The weather changes like crazy at Blowing Rock. At one spot, you will be locked in fog and drizzle and temp in the 30's....then 1 mile down the road...sun and temps in the 50's.
Downtown Blowing Rock is usually the spot locked in the fog and cold...go down the road towards Boone just a slight bit...warmer and sunny! The weather is so awesome their.
Looking at the Tryon weather report for March, the amount of precipitation was 5.83 inches (actually 0.71 below average). Well, 4.60 of those inches was on March 2, followed by two weeks of nothing, two days totaling a little over an inch mid-month, then two more weeks of being dry through the end of the month. Seems like it's either flood or drought.
It's also important to point out that Boone is around 3,200'-3,300' above sea level while Blowing Rock is between 3,500' and 3,600'. That's the same elevation change as going from Raleigh to the coast. You're going to have to live with some fog if you're that high up.
The weather changes like crazy at Blowing Rock. At one spot, you will be locked in fog and drizzle and temp in the 30's....then 1 mile down the road...sun and temps in the 50's.
Downtown Blowing Rock is usually the spot locked in the fog and cold...go down the road towards Boone just a slight bit...warmer and sunny! The weather is so awesome their.
That sums up Blowing Rock!
Yep, the height and placement of surrounding mountains creates havoc with passing weather systems not only in the Blowing Rock area, but in most of the Mountain Region of NC. I find it interesting that the driest and wettest locations in all of North Carolina are only around 40 air miles from each other according to the State Climate Office:
Wettest Weather Station - 91.72 inches at Lake Toxaway, Transylvania County annual average
Driest Weather Station - 37.32 inches Asheville (Downtown), Buncombe County annual average
Last evening we drove over to Marion for our favorite chinese food. It was everything we discussed here. In and out of the rain. Dark skies until the road curved then we see brighter skies, curve again really dark skies. As we drove down into Marion some of the mountains were obscured by rains while in other directions they were clearly visible. Beautiful drive.
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