2/19 Forecast

Good morning.

I learned a very important lesson this morning about the acceleration of east winds on Mt. Hood. In defense of NWAC and me and everyone else, yesterday’s models showed 15-25 and today’s are showing NE 30-35, so something in the weather pattern changed dramatically since forecasts came out yesterday at 7am. From now on, I’ll just double the east/northeast wind. =)

At this time, all lifts are shut down at T-Line, Upper Bowl is on standby at Skibowl, and Cascade, Vista, Blue and Mt. Hood Express are down at Meadows.

Anyway… the forecast shows 30-35, meaning we’re going to see that at middle elevations and double that (at least) in the gusts. Winds will start dropping around 1pm, reading 25-30 early afternoon and dropping to NE 15-20 by 7pm. That’s probably not going to help us out much. It’s hard to predict total snowfall today due to easterly orographic effects, but with the dry continental air, we’re probably not going to see more than 2” of new today. If you’re going into the backcountry, expect wind-loading on the opposite slopes from where you usually see it, and test slopes accordingly.

Winds switch back to the west tomorrow, thankfully. We’ll see a dry day until about 4pm, when light flurries will start for up to 1” overnight. Winds tomorrow start at W 10-15, building to NW 15-25 by 7pm.

Monday looks dry with snow flurries starting around around 7pm for a trace before we close at 9pm. Winds will be WNW 15-20, building to WNW 20-25 by 4pm.

Tuesday looks super windy with lots of snow accumulation during the day. Winds start out NW at 40-45, dropping to NW 35-40 by 4pm. We’ll see somewhere between .5”-.75” according to one model, but the strong wind and orographic enhancement might give us 1”-1.25” water value. So, we will see somewhere between 6 – 12” of new snow. Dumping snow continues on Wednesday.

Have a great day.

Temira