Snow and ice forced closure of Mount Mitchell State Park in North Carolina mountains

Mount Mitchell State Park in the North Carolina mountains was forced to close Thursday due to snow — a surprising move given tourist are still expecting to see bright fall foliage.

They got ice instead.

“Mount Mitchell State Park is closed due to snow and ice and high winds,” N.C. State Parks and Recreation said in Facebook and Twitter posts. “The park will open (Friday) as soon as possible.”

It was the layer of ice on park roads that was of greatest concern, state officials said on the park’s website. The park is about 125 miles northwest of Charlotte.

The park reopened at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Oct., 29, according to an update.

Mount Mitchell’s summit is “the highest point east of the Mississippi at 6,684 feet” and notorious for hosting weather extremes, including dramatic wind gusts and feet of snow at the height of winter.

The park did not say how much snow fell Thursday, but the mountain’s weather station reported only about a tenth of an inch of precipitation. The state’s Facebook post announcing the park’s closure featured an old mountain snow photo, which confused some people on social media.

However, winds were near 40 mph on Thursday and wind chills were as low as 20.7 degrees, the site reported. The low Thursday on the summit was 35 degrees.

Conditions weren’t much better Friday, with temperatures at 34 degrees just before dawn and a low wind chill of 23 degrees overnight. Winds were up to 28 mph. The site saw about a third of an inch of rain overnight, too.

The state’s closure announcement got more than 1,300 reactions and comments overnight, including some commenters who reported snow also fell in other parts of the mountains.

This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 7:48 AM.