Author: Temira

It’s another beautiful fall day in the Gorge, and fall means big easterlies in the western Gorge. There’s strong high pressure in the desert today and a heat low languidly lounging along the coast. Combine the two, and you’re looking at exuberant easterlies. You don’t even need to look at the gradients, webcams or sensor readings this morning. Just toss the tiny gear in the car and start driving. 30+ is the call today, with 35+ possible at Rooster.

High pressure weakens just a bit tomorrow, but the east winds should still be in the 30+ range down at Rooster and Stevenson. If you decide to sail at Rooster, remember that it’s going to be close to 90 degrees, so you can take advantage of all that Rooster Rock has to offer. Just remember your sunscreen!

At this point, models are showing high pressure over the inland Northwest through Friday or so, with the easterlies weakening a bit each day.

In other news, there’s free tai chi and chi gong at Wilson park in Hood River tonight. Chi gong’s at 5:30 and tai Chi’s at 6:00. Also tonight is the hammerhead bike ride out of Mountain View cycles. If you think you’re fast enough to not get dropped, show up at the shop at 5pm.

Then on Tuesday, Wedensday and Thursday you can join Jeri and her semi-sadistic Crossfit cadets for free workouts at Children’s park. That’s the next three days at 6:30am and 5:30pm.

Whatever you do today, have an awesome day!

You are getting your forecast now, but I was writing it a few hours ago. A few minutes before that, I was dreaming that I was writing and recording the forecast. I almost turned off my alarm clock because I was convinced I’d already done the recording for the radio. It hardly seems fair that my brain thinks I did the forecast twice today. Do you think I can convince the radio station to pay me double?

Anywa, first off, many thanks to everyone who helped out with the Doug’s Beach work party yesterday!

On the wind front, today looks like another wacky gorge flip-flop day. Gradients were still 08 westerly early (at 5:45), but they’re going to switch around to easterly pretty quickly. By late this afternoon, we’ll have a chance of sailable east winds down in Stevenson or at Rooster Rock.

Honestly, though, I think your best bet today is to head to the coast. It’s looking like 15-20 on the north coast and 20-25 on the central, with stronger wind down south. Combine that with a 7 foot west swell at 11 seconds and it might just be epic out there. For the best combination of wind and waves, head to Florence or Pistol!

If that’s not strong enough wind for you, get ready for nuclear east winds at Stevenson and Rooster tomorrow. Models are showing massive gradients the next couple of days, so 30-plus is the conservative call tomorrow, with gusts into the 40’s. Wednesday looks like a repeat of Tuesday.

If you’re more in the mood for sports spectating today, head up to the Hood River County fairground to watch the Doublecross Cyclocross race. If you’d rather ride your bike, the trails are pretty dusty right now. On a brighter note, the man-made features are still tacky, so get your downhill bike out.

And speaking of biking, mark your calendar for the annual Dirty Fingers Bike Repair campout next weekend at Lewis River.

Whatever you do today, have an awesome day!