Category: Forecast

Categories
Forecast

7/19 forecast. It’s windy again. Darn.

Good morning!

This week’s report is brought to you by the Gorge Surf Shop at 13 Oak Street in downtown Hood River. The Gorge Surf Shop has the best windsurfing gear: Fanatic and Tabou boards, and Gaastra and Maui Sails. Why should you shop there? Because the employees at the Gorge Surf Shop have the best attitude, and attitude is everything. Swing by and say hello to Darko, Transatlantic, Garrison, Recently and Slice, and maybe, if you’re lucky, Scotty will give you a nickname of your own. We don’t know yet what this week’s giveaway will be, so we’ll call it the super-special prize of the week!

We just had a super windy weekend on the Columbia, and the wind is still blowing hard this morning. The early gradient was .16 from Portland to The Dalles, and the wind was blowing in the upper twenties at the Hatchery for the Dawn Patrol session. That’s driven by a weak system working its way through BC this morning. There are less marine clouds this morning, and Portland will clear off earlier, so strongest wind will be early today, near Hood River. 27-32 this morning fades to 22-26 this afternoon from Stevenson out to Doug’s. If I had to pick a spot to be today, I’d pick the Hatchery or Sandbar this morning. Right now… 5:12am… (however, being saner than that, I am going back to sleep as soon as I’m done forecasting)

A low pressure trough moves over the Northwest tomorrow, weakening pressure gradients across the Cascades. Even so, a solid marine push will drive west winds in the 17-21 range.

If you need something to do after work tonight, as always, there’s the alternative ride out of mountain view cycles, leaving the shop at 6:30, and there’s free Tai Chi at Wilson Park in Hood River, starting at 6pm. I heard a rumor of a kickball game accompanied by free beer through Everybody’s Brewing this evening, but was unable to confirm that rumor. If you’re interested, give them a call…

Coming up tomorrow night, there’s a latte art contest at Dog River Coffee starting at 5pm. That’s followed by a dance party. Now, I know coffee isn’t exactly recreation, but I can’t live without it, so the latte art contest is recreation in my book. And besides, I bet the majority of you fuel your recreation with caffeine, so you can’t argue with me. Arthur and I are judging this event, so stop by and say hello!

Boaters, the White Salmon’s at 2.35 feet and the Klickitat’s at 1240 cfs. If you’ve been wanting to do a rafting trip, and you’ve been holding out for Husum Falls, Wet Planet and the other other companies are now running it. If you want to boat the Lower with me today, drop me a note. I need a paddling partner!

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just happen 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. Thank you for using this report, and thank you for your support!

Categories
Forecast

7/18 forecast

Good morning!

This week’s report is brought to you by the Gorge Surf Shop at 13 Oak Street in downtown Hood River. The Gorge Surf Shop has the best windsurfing gear: Fanatic and Tabou boards, and Gaastra and Maui Sails. Why should you shop there? Because the employees at the Gorge Surf Shop have the best attitude, and attitude is everything. Swing by and say hello to Darko, Transatlantic, Garrison, Recently and Slice, and maybe, if you’re lucky, Scotty will give you a nickname of your own. We don’t know yet what this week’s giveaway will be, so we’ll call it the super-special prize of the week!

If you’re looking for something to do before breakfast this morning, head over to Windance for an all-sports swap meet. Usually they start at 7am, but thankfully, this one doesn’t start until 8.
That’s a good thing, because I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sore and tired from yesterday, and all of us could all use an extra hour of sleep! Hopefully you didn’t sleep too late, because it’s going to be very windy again today. The early gradient was .16 from Portland to The Dalles – that’s very big – with another .05 out east, and the cloud line was somewhere west of Hood River. A system will move through this morning, and then another heads our way this afternoon, keeping the gradients big and the wind flowing through the Gorge.

If you want to sail strong wind at the Hatchery, get it early, because the weather dynamics later may affect wind quality. That said, we’ll see a steady build to the 28-32 range at the Hatchery and Mosier this morning with a little less wind, but still a lot, at Stevenson, Viento and the Sandbar. As this system moves in later, the wind may get gusty in the Corridor, and will definitely start filling in at The Wall and Arlington. The wind at Stevenson should hold all day long.

Monday’s wind looks weaker than today, with west winds near Hood River in the 21-23 range. Another system coming in Tuesday brings more clouds to Portland and ups the wind speeds through the Gorge again.

Boaters, the White Salmon is bouncing around between 2.5 and 2 ¾ feet, and the Klickitat’s at 1280 cfs. Both of those levels are lots of fun, but it’s going to be pretty windy to try running the Klickitat today, so the White Salmon is a better bet.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just happen 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. Thank you for using this report, and thank you for your support!