This morning is starting out mostly cloudy with high clouds above Mt. Hood, a much nicer weather pattern than the Nothing-covered start to the day here in the Gorge. The clouds will thicken and lower as the day goes on, with precip starting around 7pm. The snow level today will be at the surface early, rising to 6500′ with the arrival of this weather system. We’ll see approximately .8” of rain overnight (models tend to underestimate rainy storms, btw)., The wind will be SW 15 early, rising to SW 35 overnight and switching to westerly after midnight. Continued after the chart.
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4a-8a | 8a-12p | 12p-4p | 4p-8p | 8p-4a |
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| Today 0′–>0′–>6500′ |
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| Tomorrow 6500′–>8000′ |
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| The next day 8000′–>3000′ |
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Mt. Hood Snow Forecast, continued…
Tomorrow looks partly cloudy with low clouds and a bit of sunshine to start. The next weather system, a warm and wet one, moves in during the afternoon with precip starting around 4pm and finishing up early Thursday morning. The snow level for this period will be 6500′ on Wednesday morning and 8000′ on Wednesday afternoon, holding through Thursday morning. We’ll see .5-1.0” rain with this weather system. The wind will be W 25 early, switching to SW 20 midday and rising to SW 40 overnight.
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Thursday starts out partly cloudy. Clouds increase during the day, with precip starting around 4pm and continuing through Friday morning. As of right now, it looks like the snow level will be 8000′ early, 5500′ when the precip hits, falling to 3000′ by Friday morning. We’ll see .4” water value (WV) with this system, for 2-4” of new snow. Wind will be SSW 45-50 early, becoming W 40 in the evening and swinging to the SW after midnight.
Friday brings light snowfall with the snow level at 3000′. As of right now, it’s looking like we’ll get an additional 2-4” of new snow. In your long-range and not-so-reliable forecast discussion: Saturday looks rainy. Sunday starts off with snow and switch to rain. Monday looks warm and rainy.
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Gorge Wind Forecast
It’s still positively nuking at Rooster Rock with a 2500′ deep cold pool being funneled through the path of least resistance. You can expect east wind at 45-55 today, all day. Expect east 35-45 tomorrow morning and E 45-55 tomorrow afternoon. Thursday also looks like east 45-55, fading to light E or maybe even switch to light W in the evening as a strong upper level low swings over the PNW. If the models are right, and you’d better hope they are, we’ll see light west wind on Friday. Please, oh please.
For those of you wanting to watch the wind speeds at Stevenson, you can check the town’s weather station.
Random Morning Thoughts
I’m feeling scattered and distracted this morning, and even a bit excited. Mother Nature is about to drop an ice bomb on the Gorge, and that means all my plans for this week are up in the air. I’m headed to Portland, and am assuming I’ll get trapped. It’s an adventure. A vacation of sorts. A chance to crash with one of my classmates and get to know her better.
Sometimes we get frustrated when our plans are frustrated by the weather. I’m guessing many of you are in the same boat. Perhaps we can all decided, together, to roll with Icepocalypse 2015 and find some good in this. That book you’ve been meaning to read? Pull it out. The friend you’ve been trying to have coffee with forever? Call her up. You’ve been meaning to spend some time using the gym as your gym? Now’s the time. Learn how to do a proper squat (I can’t!).
Mother Nature is about to hand you, Gorge dwellers, a get-out-of-everything free card. Make the most of it. Have an awesome day, and enjoy the beauty of the ice-coated Gorge. Have an awesome day.
Disclaimer required by my grad school program: I am not your therapist. I am your weather forecaster. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, and consult with your actual therapist about your mental health issues.
Gorge Weather Forecast
I wrote all the other sections of the forecast before this one today, because this is the one that’s most piqued my excitement. I’m pretty bummed I won’t be here to witness it, to be quite honest. We’re starting off with a whole lot of Nothing this morning with temps in the upper 20’s. The thermometer isn’t forecast to budge today, with NOAA predicting just 29 degrees for a high. (I let them handle temps, for the most part. I do everything else from scratch, much like cookies.) Starting this evening, we here in the Gorge are f***ed.
With the snow level at 6500′ and the cold pool about 2500′ deep, it’s possible, although unlikely, that lower elevations in the Gorge will see sleet before switching to freezing rain tonight. The precip will likely start by 7pm, and it doesn’t really matter which kind of stuff falls from the sky… NOAA has this one right: “TRAVEL WILL BECOME EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE AT TIMES TONIGHT AND WED AM.” Expect .25”+ of ice. You can also expect very strong east wind in the western Gorge. DO NOT DRIVE THE GORGE TONIGHT.
Freezing rain continues through 4am tomorrow, with a break between 4am-ish and 4pm-ish. Another round of relatively heavy precipitation will fall between 4pm Wednesday and 4am Thursday. This is where the forecast gets tricky. Models suggest we’ll warm just above freezing during the day Wednesday and drop below freezing again Thursday night. Models, however, tend to warm us up too fast, and with 45-55mph east wind predicted, it’s likely we’ll stay sub-freezing through Thursday morning. That means we’ll see another .25”-.5” of ice.
Thursday looks realatively dry until the afternoon. Models again predict we’ll start below freezing and rise above freezing, but again, they don’t handle this well. With 45-55mph easterlies predicted early, fading in the afternoon, it’s entirely possible we’ll see another round of freezing rain Thursday afternoon. Models do say a strong, compact upper level low will move inland Thursday night, and that should be enough to warm us above freezing on Friday.
To recapitulate: freezing rain starts this evening. If you go to Portland today, leave Portland by 4pm or you may be trapped for several days. If I-84 closes, take a look at SR-14 as an alternate route home – it often stays open. You could look at driving over the mountain, but the upper Hood River Valley will be all ice stormed out too.
White Sprinter Van of the Day
Road and Mountain Biking
If you would like to get out and ride, either on the road or trails, do it today. It might even stay dark and gloomy enough to keep the trails frozen – even so, please try to pick an option under the canopy in order to protect delicate freeze-thaw dirt. Freezing rain will start tonight sometime after 7pm, knocking down trees and turning the entire Gorge into a skating rink. The Gorge is your ice skating rink.
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Upcoming Events
Coming up this evening, there’s pickup touch rugby at the ball fields next to Jackson Park at 5pm, there’s yoga at the Mosier Senior Center at 7pm, there’s Zumba at the Parkdale Community Center at 6:30, and there’s meditation at Yoga Samadhi at 6:30 with the monks from Pacific Hermitage. They’ll all be gone for 7 weeks starting in a couple weeks, so if you want to experience this loveliness, you want to do it this week or next.
Have an awesome day today!
Temira
