WNC Weather
NOTE: We have customized weather at the bottom of each towns web page.
Please scroll down for information on our unique topology impacts our weather.
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The High South in the Blue Ridge / Smoky Mountains has weather as diverse as the terrain. With elevations that vary several thousand feet, high mountain peaks and deep gorges and valleys, the weather can be server degrees different in just a 20-mile area.
The area between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Piedmont territories is the Blue Ridge Escarpment, a sudden change in elevation with a vertical changes that from around 1,300 to 2,500 feet.
The Escarpment impacts the area's climate. The locale's most noteworthy yearly precipitation is in Transylvania County and adjacent Sapphire Valley Resort , where climate frameworks slam into the Escarpment, greatly increasing rain and at times, enhancing winds from tropical storms passing overhead.
Higher amounts of rainfall fell along the Escarpment during the storms of July 15-16, 1916 causing the devastating failure of the Lake Toxaway Dam.
https://historyofsapphirevalley.org/1890-1916
As recently as October 2020 the Blue Ridge Escarpment’s terrain was a factor in accelerating winds associated with the remnants Hurricane Zeta passing overhead to gusts of more than 60mph.
The term "the wedge" is commonly used to describe the weather phenomenon known as Cold Air Damming, which is also occasionally referred to as the "backdoor cold front." Cold Air Damming is a meteorological occurrence in which cold air masses at lower altitudes become geographically trapped, as is the case in our region due to the presence of the Appalachian Mountains.