The heat wave sets its teeth into the Gorge today, with high temperatures climbing near 100 degrees. The thermal trough’s over Western Oregon, and that low pressure keeps Gorge winds pretty darn light today. At best, we’ll see easterlies in the 10-15ish range this morning before the afternoon heat crushes all traces of gorge wind.
By tomorrow, the heat low shifts into the desert and westerlies return. As an upper low drops down the coast, marine clouds push inland. Combine the two and you get west winds. Of course, timing is going to be really key with this. I’m thinking we’ll start off with light westerlies tomorrow. They’ll slowly build into the 23-27 range in the afternoon. If the timing is perfect, we’ll see more wind, and if it’s not, we’ll see less.
There’s no guessing going on for Friday. It’s going to be a windy day in the Gorge. With the heat low in the desert and solid marine clouds over Portland, it’s dawn patrol on Friday, followed by wind all day long. It depends where the cloud line sets up, but I think we’ll see good, solid, classic Gorge wind from Hood River to the Wall on Friday.
At this point, it looks like the weekend will be windy.
Coming up tomorrow is the Post and Pint ride, the Hood River triathlon led by the fabulous Paul Jones, Families in the Park, and my favorite, a Luau all day long at Hawks Ridge in Hood River. The Luau entertainment is free, and the food’s just $5.
Whatever you do today, have an awesome day!
