The Storm of the Century: Bearwallow Mountain in 1993
Bearwallow Mountain was hit hardest by the memorable snow of March 1993 when 11-foot drifts closed roads for a week.
Winter weather will soon be returning to Western North Carolina. Snow and ice makes traveling treacherous; frigid temperatures and bone-chilling winds force most of us indoors.
So when a winter storm blows in, a high-elevation mountaintop might seem like the most unappealing place to venture. Unless it’s your home.
In eastern Henderson County, a fire lookout tower crowns the summit high atop venerable Bearwallow Mountain. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937, the nearly 50-foot steel tower served as an instrumental tool for rapid fire detection in Henderson, Buncombe and Rutherford counties. Up until the mid-1990s, the N.C. Forest Service stationed a lookout atop the mountain year-round.
This tower operator radioed the nearby fire department upon spotting smoke in the valleys below. The tower enabled rapid response to the scene; small forest fires were able to be controlled before developing into devastating infernos.
Judy Tuten of Hendersonville staffed the fire tower atop Bearwallow Mountain during the early 1990s. Judy, her husband, John, and their son, Jesse, lived at the summit for six years; a small house adjacent to the tower was their home.
Judy has no shortage of tales about her former mountaintop perch. The most memorable occurred in March 1993. Many long-time western North Carolina residents will never forget that month — Judy is one of them.
Those who remember the winter of 1993 chuckle when they hear recent years’ snowfalls described as severe. That winter the jet stream dipped unusually south, bringing with it frigid air from Canada. It reached the Gulf of Mexico, where it picked up ample moisture before looping northward across the eastern part of the United States. This meteorological anomaly made conditions poised for one of the most severe winter storms in our region’s history.
Atop Bearwallow Mountain, Judy and her family weathered out what was later termed the “Storm of the Century” in one of the least hospitable places imaginable. At 4,232 feet above sea level, Bearwallow is one of the highest peaks in Henderson County. It receives exponentially greater winds at its elevation than those experienced in the valleys below.
The mountain also forms part of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, where the Blue Ridge range rises abruptly from the Piedmont in the east and south. This topographic barrier acts like a wall against which approaching storms traveling from the Gulf of Mexico slow and release the bulk of their moisture.
From the fire tower at Bearwallow, Judy communicated by radio with the airport to obtain weather reports. She recalled the airport asking her, “Are you ready for a big snow? This one is going to be serious.” But no one could have predicted just quite how severely the storm would impact the region.
A full-fledged blizzard slammed into western North Carolina on March 12. It didn’t relent for two full days. Record-low temperatures and barometer readings were registered across the southern Appalachians. By the time it was over, our region received more than two feet of snowfall.
As expected, Bearwallow got hammered by the blizzard. Complicating the mountain’s geographic location and high elevation, a grassy bald occupies its summit. No trees are present to break the gale force winds.
“You couldn’t even stand up outside. You actually had to crawl, the wind was so strong,” Judy said. She was especially concerned about her house staying anchored to the mountain during the storm; the soil atop Bearwallow Mountain is only a few inches deep.
As if the intense winds and heavy snow weren’t enough, Judy and her family were shocked to see streaks of lightning and hear booming thunder.
“The lightning was blue,” she remembered.
Since lightning isn’t typical during winter, it became obvious the storm was truly out of the ordinary. The storm of the century was exactly that.
Two days later, the Tutens emerged from their house. To their surprise, snow was completely absent from the top of the mountain. Since the summit lacks trees to block the wind, all of the snow had been blown into the forest, and up against their home. A snow drift piled up to the roof of their house. It completely buried their vehicles.
“It was 11 feet tall and 200 feet long,” John Tuten recalled. Nine-year-old Jesse could climb the drift and step right onto the top of the house.
Snowdrifts in the forest were 10 to 12 feet deep. The Tuten’s only access road off of the mountain was completely buried. An entire week elapsed before a bulldozer came to the rescue, traveling three miles up the road from Gerton in order to make it passable for the Tuten family to receive supplies. Once plowed, it formed a tunnel-like passage burrowed through 10-foot walls of snow on each of its sides.
“For months, it was like a bobsled run. The snow didn’t melt until May,” Judy remembered.
When all was said and done, the storm of the century left Western North Carolina devastated. It took weeks for residents to dig themselves out from under the record snowfall.
The blizzard resulted in an estimated $75 million in damages to the region and claimed a dozen lives. More than 100,000 people were left without power. Judy remembers looking out from the mountain and seeing darkness across the valleys.
“We saw only one-third of the lights that we would normally see,” she said.
In spite of Bearwallow receiving its full brunt, the Tutens endured the storm unscathed. Though unnerving at the time, Judy admits it was her favorite experience during all of her years atop the mountain.
Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy protects the summit of Bearwallow Mountain with an 81-acre conservation easement that includes the mountaintop bald surrounding the fire tower. CMLC is working toward the ultimate conservation of more than 470 acres at the top of Bearwallow. This year, the CMLC constructed a one-mile public hiking trail that accesses the scenic peak.
For driving and hiking directions to Bearwallow Mountain, visit www.conservingcarolina.org/bearwallow-mountain. If you visit in winter, consider checking the weather forecast first.
Author Peter Barr is the landowner information associate for Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy. CMLC has protected more than 21,000 acres in Henderson, Transylvania and surrounding counties.