Forecast - The Gorge is my Gym

Good morning!

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Good morning!

The east winds are back this morning, and along with the stagnant air mass overhead, the Nothing has returned. I expect it won’t stick around long today, but if you’re up early, you have a chance to see it. There won’t be many Nothing days this winter, with the dynamic La Nina ruling the region, so take this chance to look at the gloom.

Windsurfing or kiting is on the radar this morning, as balmy temperatures in the upper 30’s make for a nice morning on the water… if you are a penguin. The east gradient of .10 is enough for upper teens to low twenties in Stevenson with upper twenties at Rooster Rock.

Easterlies blow again tomorrow morning, before swinging around to westerlies on Thursday as a weak front pulls into the PNW parking lot.

Coming up tomorrow night, there’s Kayak Polo at the Hood River Pool. Also tomorrow night, Paul Oakenfold plays in Portland. I have two tickets to the show, thanks to fabulous Mike from Area 54. If you’d like to see Mike and his DJ pal Tim play, they’re spinning at Masu in Portland this Friday at 8pm. They’ll have swag from the record labels (free stuff, yay!), and if you’re really nice, they might buy you sushi dinner (okay, maybe not).

Also this week, there’s an Energy Trust workshop at the Hood River Inn tomorrow night. Come learn how to make your home more energy efficient and get a yummy free meal. More information at EnergyTrust.org. On Friday night TeleVision, the new PowderWhores telemark ski movie, plays at Dog River at 8pm. On Saturday, there’s a work party on the new Sexy Beast trail in Post Canyon. Meet at Binn’s Hill staging area at 9am, and expect to work for 4-5 hours. Food provided. If you ride upper Post, you should come help with this one. It will vastly improve your shuttling, free-ride, downhill-lovin’ experience!

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.

Good morning!

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Good morning!

It’s not looking quite as gloomy as yesterday this morning, although clouds are still hanging low over the Gorge. As I write this forecast at 7:45, there’s no rain falling from the sky. There’s a good chance that will change soon, judging by the radar picture. It’s pouring from Cascade Locks westward (not a good day to go to Portland). However, that moisture is moving northwest, and may miss us. That would be sad, as the rivers are rising and I’d love to see another inch of rain fall on Mt. Hood.

Right now the Hood’s at 3.6 feet (it appears it spiked near 4.5 briefly last night), and the Klickitat’s around 850 cfs. I don’t have a reading for the White Salmon, but I’m guessing it’s come up a bit with all the rain, and will continue to come up today, hopefully getting just over 2 feet.

If you want to windsurf or kite today, you’ll be waiting until after the front clears the Cascades. Due to the trajectory of the front, it doesn’t look like we’ll see the nuclear force day we were waiting for. Instead, we’ll see westerlies in the 22-24 range from maybe Maryhill out to Threemile, with gusty 17-21 in the western Gorge under the clouds. My guess would be the wind won’t last very long, maybe 2-3 hours, so if you want it, get on it as soon as the wind starts picking up. Sorry guys, I was hoping for a big day too.

It doesn’t look like we’ll see any wind of note in the Gorge the next two days (and with the saturated ground, the Nothing will likely show up), but you could catch a big day at Pistol River either tomorrow or Tuesday, and Florence should be windy Tuesday as well.

If you want to mountain bike today, please don’t go to Post. It’s really, really, really muddy, and you’ll damage the trails if you ride today (as for the people I saw shuttling the Super D yesterday, well, they suck, except for the guys in the X-terra who turned around instead of taking a second lap in the mud. They are super cool!).

Coming up this week, there’s a free Energy Trust workshop on making your home more efficient on Thursday night (someone else will show you how to make it efficient the other nights of the week). That’s at the Hood River Inn at 6pm and comes with free dinner. On Friday, the new PowderWhores telemark ski movie (first ski movie of the season) plays at Dog River at 8pm. No free dinner at the movie, but chance are there will be swag of some sort.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira