Good morning!
It looks likes the boring sunshine is finally going away. That’s not really a good thing in my world, as I love mid-winter sun. It keeps me sane. However, it is what it is, and we’ll see the sun again sometime soon.
We’ll see high clouds on Mt. Hood today as a front makes its way into Oregon from the north. Winds will be light easterlies on the mountain this morning, switching to west 10-15mph by 1pm. The inverted temperatures will hold on the mountain all day today, with near- or above-freezing temperatures until 7pm.
Precipitation starts tonight around 1am Wednesday, with various models predicting .25” to .5” of water value. Snow levels will start off at the surface, rising to 5000-5500’, with a significant chance of a freezing rain episode on Mt. Hood and on Highway 35. If we see snow, and I think we will for the most part, we’ll see 2-4” of heavy sludge. Winds tonight rise to WSW 25-30 by tomorrow morning, briefly rising to 30-35 midday tomorrow, then decreasing slightly to W 20-25 in the evening.
Snow/rain ends by 1am on Thursday for a dry, cloudy day on the mountain with temperatures at/near/just above freezing. Free air freezing levels will be around 5500 feet, rising to 6500 feet by 10pm.
Friday starts of dry and cloudy, with snow levels rapidly falling to 2500’ by 4pm. Snow starts around 2pm, with .25” to .5” of water value expected, so it looks like we’ll see snow, not r-word. That should give us 4-6” of snow by Saturday morning. Winds on Friday start off at W 15-20mph, rising to WSW 25-35 by 10am, switching to SW 30-40 midday and then building to W 35-45 by 4pm and holding through the evening. Those evening westerlies could be troublesome to chairlifts.
At this point, the weekend forecast shows light snowfall on Saturday and sunshine on Sunday.
Your Gorge weather forecast includes snow tonight through Thursday morning, with an inch or two tonight and another inch or two before temperatures moderate tomorrow evening. Your Gorge windsurfing/kiting forecast, for insane people, includes east winds at 25-30 at Stevenson today and 30-35 at Rooster, fading rapidly this afternoon.
Have a great day today!
Temira
