at 11:11 AM by Jacob Wilkins

Record Breaking Smoky Mountains Heavy Snow

As mentioned last evening, the Smoky Mountains were expected to get several inches of snow overnight. Well, the winter storm did not disappoint to say the least. As of this morning, Mt. Leconte, the Great Smoky National Park’s second highest peak recorded 22″ of snow. This is the most snow for a first seasonal snowfall on record. That’s a lot, and there’s more on the way. Snow drifts of 4-5′ were reported by the National Park Service in Newfound Gap, where 15″ of snow was recorded.

The National Park Service had to close all roads in the park. The snow was a heavy, wet snow, which means several trees were downed across the park. It will take every bit of one day to get the National Park operational once more. According to the National Park Twitter, one hiker was seriously injured due to a tree falling on them. A majority of the campgrounds will need to be evacuated once the roads are finally clear enough to pass.

Below is a series of tweets regarding the event. Some of the pictures of the Smoky Mountains heavy snow are incredible. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the injured hiker and those stranded in the snow.