Category: Forecast

Good morning!

This week’s forecast is brought to you by Flow Yoga on 3rd Street in downtown Hood River. If you’re desperately searching for a workout now that the trails are muddy and the roads are slick, think about joining Flow (the not-just-yoga Yoga studio). You can choose from 25 fitness/training classes and 32 yoga/meditation classes for a total of over 50 classes each week to keep you sane during the off-season. In addition to protecting your sanity, Flow is offering lots of classes to get your bum in shape for ski season (and if you read the forecast below, you’re going to be scrambling to get that bum in ski-ready conditions). If you’ve never been a Flow member, you can try out a month for just $49. One of you will win a free month membership at the end of this week!

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Clouds, rain and wind continue in the Gorge today, and heavy snow and strong winds keep hammering the Cascades. We’ll see a break in the weather tomorrow (with a good chance of the Nothing cloud over the Gorge) with building east winds, and a return to showery weather on Thursday.

As of 6am, there were 31” on the ground at the base of Meadows, with 8” of new snow overnight. If you are planning on going hiking today, be prepared for deep snow, avalanche danger, and limited visibility due to high winds. In the next week, we’re going to see varying snow levels in the mountains, which alternating rain and snow episodes.

The mountain isn’t the only windy place today. The eastern desert sees another round of gusty westerlies, with 24-28 at Maryhill and Arlington.

On the rivers, the White Salmon is holding around 2.25 feet, the Hood has dropped down to 3.6 feet (but was a fun ride yesterday from Tucker Bridge down at 3.9ft), and the Klickitat’s at 827cfs.

Coming up this week, The Rocky Horror Picture Show plays at Columbia Center for the Arts on Wednesday (7pm pre-party, show at 8pm, no food throwing allowed), the new Poor Boyz ski movie plays at Andrew’s on Thursday (Poor Boyz put out the best movie last year, so come check out this year’s flick), and the Cooper Spur Ski Patrol ski swap is at the Hood River Saddle Club on Saturday.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just want to recognize all the hard work that goes into it, please take the time to make a donation by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til May 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.

There are still bands of showers moving through the Gorge this morning after constant rain last night. 1.3” of water equivalent fell at Meadows, for a coating of snow from the base area to the top of the mountain. NOAA has issued a Winter Storm Warning, calling for approximately 3-4’ of snow between now and Tuesday. I don’t know if that’s enough snow to get the mountain open, but it’s going to be enough snow for you to earn some early season turns somewhere.

It’s going to be quite windy (25-40mph+) in the mountains over the next several days, so do be prepared for avalanche danger in wind-loaded areas. Granted, we’re starting out with a nice warm (relatively) storm, so it’s going to be a fairly stable snowpack, but wind speeds will be in the “perfect” range to heavily load lee slopes.

As for the wind on the river, I just don’t think it’s going to happen today, as the strong storm off the coast takes its time moving across the state. Best chance for wind will be tomorrow in the eastern desert, but the setup is not ideal. We’ll likely see gusty, chilly 20-25 out east.

Finally, it’s going to be pretty muddy on the trails today. If you can skip Post, where the exposed clay surface damages easily, please do. You’ll have more fun riding at Syncline or Hospital Hill, both of which handle the rain much better.

Or better yet, go boating. The White Salmon is reportedly still around 1.6 feet, but the Hood is rising fast and is currently at 3.1 feet. The Klickitat is currently quite low at 772 cfs.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just want to recognize all the hard work that goes into it, please take the time to make a donation by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til May 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.