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The Forecast
| Your favorite beach | Dawn Patrol |
9am- 11:30a |
11:30a- 3pm |
3pm- dusk |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rooster Rock | OPEN! | naked | buns | rejoice! | |
| Steven’s Locks | LTW | LTW | LTW | 5-10 | |
| Swell-Hood River | calm | calm | calm | 5-10 | |
| Doug’s, Lyle, Rowena | calm | calm | calm | calm | |
| Rufus, etc. | calm | calm | calm | calm | |
| Roosevelt & Arlington | calm | calm | calm | calm | |
Gorge Wind Forecast
Oregon and Washington are encouraging people to not travel more than 50mph to access recreation, and all land managers and law enforcement are carefully watching to see if people maintain social distancing. If crowding happens, water access will be revoked. If you are local and lucky enough to have water access in your community, please do this: rig, play, leave. There is NO camping allowed at any of the river parks. Please don’t camp unlawfully; doing so risks access for everyone, including for people who just want to use the parks for a picnic. All hotels and short-term rentals are still closed in Hood River to non-essential travelers. Recreate and go home. If you live in a place that’s still under a stay at home order, stay home – follow the guidance of where you live, not where you want to go. Thank you!
On to the forecast. You may be very, very tempted by the nuking west wind forecast for Saturday. If it pans out, it’ll be experts only, and it’ll also require very small gear! Play with a partner. Keep them in sight. Wear a PFD in case you get separated from your gear.
Friday’s forecast is not so exciting as Saturday’s. While models did predict morning westerlies, it’s glassy. That’ll be the picture for most of the day. A late-afternoon thermal gradient should give us W 7-10 from Stevenson to Swell, maybe to Hood River or Mosier. HOT!
On Saturday, moderate offshore high pressure combines with an intense, powerful, and unusual low moving up from the SW for ridiculous cross-Cascade gradients. Also possible – thunderstorms and severe thunderstorms, especially east of the Cascades. Morning westerlies start with 26-30+ from Stevenson to Mosier. The wind builds (assuming thunderstorms don’t break the cap) to 40-50 from Stevenson to Avery in the afternoon, filling in at 40-50 to Boardman (or farther!) after 4pm.
Getting into the more technical details, it looks like the western Gorge may be best situated to avoid low-level thunderstorms. High-based storms are still possible as upper levels destabilize and wind at elevation is diffluent from 10am Saturday through 2am Sunday. High-based storms are prolific lightning producers, and tons of moisture in the air will make hail possible. Out east, severe storms are a non-zero possibility all across the land, making Rufus (probably too much current anyway), Roosevelt (no overnight camping) and Threemile (no overnight camping) a bit of a crapshoot. It’s also worth noting that high-based storms don’t always shut down the wind like lower-level instability can.
Sunday: things stabilize from west to east as the day goes on. Morning westerlies look like 10-13 in the west and gusty 24-27 in the eastern Gorge. Along with the stabilization comes dropping wind speeds; afternoon looks like W 13-16 from Stevenson to Arlington.
Open/Closed Launch Site List -All restrooms are closed!
Washington:Skamania County – Phase two, recreate with 5 or less people outside household
Stevenson East Point, Bob’s Beach, Boat ramp: all open
Home Valley: Unknown
Swell City: Open
Spring Creek Hatchery: Open
Klickitat County – Stay at home order in place. Only recreate with household members
Wunderbar: high water
Bingen Point: Open
Lyle: you have to cross private property to access
Doug’s Beach: Open
Avery: Open
Maryhill: Open for day use only..
The Wall: Open.
Roosevelt: Open for day use only.
Oregon: Phase one for Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam counties – recreate with 10 or fewer friends from the county
Rooster Rock: Open
Viento: Open
The Hook: Open
Waterfront Park: Closed
Event Site: Open
The Spit: Open
The Marina: Open
Boat ramp: open
Mosier: Only open for residents of 97040
Rowena: Still closed.
Celilo: Open
Rufus: Open
Arlington: Open
Threemile: Open
Mt. Hood Weather Forecast
Timberline is open with exemplary guidelines for protecting guests and staff from the transmission of novel coronavirus. Please read their guidelines and rules here. Well done, T-Line! The Mt. Hood weather forecast will be on vacation unless something interesting happens in the weather up there. Some of you will be tempted to go out backcountry skiing. Please don’t – accidents do happen, and you may put others at risk. Timberline is allowing uphill access outside the permit area on the climbers’ trail ONLY. No uphill traffic is allowed at Meadows.Hood River Weather Forecast
Clear sky Friday morning gives way to high clouds and possible thunder overnight. Temps will be in the low 60’s early and low 90’s later. Muggy in the afternoon. Calm wind early. Light westerlies later. No rainbows. Saturday looks exciting. Temps will be in the low 60s’ early and low 70’s later. Thunderstorms likely. Nuking west wind. 2% chance of rainbows. Sunday starts cloudy and ends sunny. Temps will be near 50 early and near 70 later. Moderate westerlies. 4% chance of rainbows, but just in the morning. Looking for a complete Columbia Gorge forecast? Looking for more humor in your weather? Obscenities? You’re looking for my TATAS: Temira’s Awesome Travel Advisory Service on Facebook.Cycling
Trail update 5/28: Post Canyon: no parking in HRC forests (staging areas, or anywhere). Syncline/Coyote Wall: Open. Mt. Hood National Forest: Open for day use. Surveyor’s, Dog River, and Oak Ridge snow-free. Kreps/SDS: open. Sandy Ridge: Open. Nestor Peak: open. Falls Creek: open. Columbia Hills State Park: open. Syncline: open . Skamania County trails outside the scenic area: open. Ape Canyon: Closed.
Current lawful social distancing requirements: only people from your household in Klickitat County. Only household members if you’re from Multnomah, Clark, or other ‘stay at home’ counties. Up to 5 friends in Skamania County. Up to 10 in Hood River County.
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Temira
