Almost all roads in Smokies still closed

The winter storm that passed through the Smokies over the weekend still has most of the roads in the park closed as of this morning.

Here are the current road closures:

• Newfound Gap Road (US-441) is open ONLY to vehicles with 4WD or chains.
• Little River Road
• Foothills Parkway East (Cosby to I-40)
• Foothills Parkway West
• Old NC-284 between Big Creek and Cataloochee
• Cataloochee Entrance Road
• Cherokee Orchard Road above Twin Creeks Science Center
• Wear Cove Road
• Lakeview Road
• Upper Tremont Road
• Toms Branch Road
• Greenbrier Road
• Cosby Campground Entrance Road
• Foothills Parkway (unfinished section) - the 4 mile section from the gate at US-321 in Wears Valley that is normally closed to motor vehicles is now closed to all use until January 2012. The Walland end of the road will be closed to all public use begining Dec. 16, 2010.

As of 7:30 this morning the National Weather Service website is reporting 20 inches of snow on the ground at Mt. LeConte.

Things aren't looking much better either. The National Weather Service has posted another Winter Weather Advisory for the Smokies region that will be in effect until Thursday morning:

A WARM FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION WEDNESDAY NIGHT...GENERATING A WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION OVER THE REGION. WITH VERY COLD AIR ALREADY IN PLACE...THE INITIAL PRECIPITATION WILL BE IN THE FORM OF LIGHT SNOW. THE LIGHT SNOW WILL GRADUALLY CHANGE OVER TO SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN. AS WARMER AIR MOVES IN BEHIND THE FRONT...THE WINTRY MIX WILL SLOWLY CHANGE TO RAIN LATE TONIGHT AND THURSDAY MORNING.

To stay up-to-date on weather forecasts and conditions in the Smokies, click here.

For the latest road reports, click here or call the park office at (865) 436-1200.



Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com