7/18 forecast

Good morning!

This week’s report is brought to you by the Gorge Surf Shop at 13 Oak Street in downtown Hood River. The Gorge Surf Shop has the best windsurfing gear: Fanatic and Tabou boards, and Gaastra and Maui Sails. Why should you shop there? Because the employees at the Gorge Surf Shop have the best attitude, and attitude is everything. Swing by and say hello to Darko, Transatlantic, Garrison, Recently and Slice, and maybe, if you’re lucky, Scotty will give you a nickname of your own. We don’t know yet what this week’s giveaway will be, so we’ll call it the super-special prize of the week!

If you’re looking for something to do before breakfast this morning, head over to Windance for an all-sports swap meet. Usually they start at 7am, but thankfully, this one doesn’t start until 8.
That’s a good thing, because I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sore and tired from yesterday, and all of us could all use an extra hour of sleep! Hopefully you didn’t sleep too late, because it’s going to be very windy again today. The early gradient was .16 from Portland to The Dalles – that’s very big – with another .05 out east, and the cloud line was somewhere west of Hood River. A system will move through this morning, and then another heads our way this afternoon, keeping the gradients big and the wind flowing through the Gorge.

If you want to sail strong wind at the Hatchery, get it early, because the weather dynamics later may affect wind quality. That said, we’ll see a steady build to the 28-32 range at the Hatchery and Mosier this morning with a little less wind, but still a lot, at Stevenson, Viento and the Sandbar. As this system moves in later, the wind may get gusty in the Corridor, and will definitely start filling in at The Wall and Arlington. The wind at Stevenson should hold all day long.

Monday’s wind looks weaker than today, with west winds near Hood River in the 21-23 range. Another system coming in Tuesday brings more clouds to Portland and ups the wind speeds through the Gorge again.

Boaters, the White Salmon is bouncing around between 2.5 and 2 ¾ feet, and the Klickitat’s at 1280 cfs. Both of those levels are lots of fun, but it’s going to be pretty windy to try running the Klickitat today, so the White Salmon is a better bet.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

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