The white stuff brought a lot of green over the holidays

The "arctic" weather that hit North Carolina over the 2017/18 holidays was a boon for High Country hotels, restaurants and ski areas.

“This one week will mean millions of dollars in economic impact,” Tracy Brown, director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority, told the Watauga Democrat. “It’s always good to see snow on slopes and the streets black. The stars aligned for us this year.”

Recent years have seen warmer weather this time of year impact tourism, particularly for skiing. (Here's to hoping it stays cold enough for our trip in March!)

“The last few winters have been tough, because we haven’t had the product to put out there, in our case, that’s winter sports, skiing, snowboarding, tubing, snowy hikes,” Brown said of the last warm December winters in recent years. “It’s critical that we have good weather and people can get here.”