May 30, 2020

Good Morning,

Yesterday was turning out to be a rather pleasant day on the mountain. The weather had different plans around supper time though, as a few pop-up storms flared up over Clingmans Dome and quickly found their way over to us. The rainy day streak extended to lucky number 13. It’s possible that after conditions clear up this morning, we could finally be getting some relief in the way of consistent sunshine. How nice would that be?

The lodge recorded 0.52” of rainfall, the majority of which fell during the evening hours. Our high temp was 64° and the low was 48°. We are currently staring at the clouds. This weekend is looking good for spending time in the outdoors, and temps don’t be appear to be too oppressive. A great way to send out the month of May.

It’s important to find the silver lining in this long stretch of clouds and rain. It has produced countless dramatic scenes from around the mountain, especially if skies broke enough for a sunset spectacular. Even the vegetation seems to be enjoying it, as the Catawba Rhododendron display down at Inspiration Point is putting on one of its better shows in recent years. In the coming weeks, the purple wave will hopefully make it’s climb up the trail along with several other types of vivid flowering plants. Remember, don’t pick the flowers, or else it ceases to be the beautiful thing that one admires, plus no one after you will have the pleasure of getting to enjoy it. Just one of several great Leave No Trace practices.

​Have a great weekend.