Christmas Day forecast. Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Come by Riverside Grill, Cebu Lounge and the Best Western Hood River Inn over the holidays. Excellent multi-day Meadows ski packages, or affordable guest rooms (it’s off-season, and prices are totally reasonable) — plus heated outdoor pool, spas, sauna. Great bands at Cebu, plus New Year’s Eve with Lolo Motion. And don’t forget Cebu’s awesome Happy Hours from 4-6 pm, Monday through Friday and $12 prime rib on Tuesday nights (except 12/31) Happy Holidays!

Random Morning Thoughts

I’d like to ask all of you with family and significant others to take some extra time to be thankful for those relationships during this holiday season. Contemplate how your life would be without the support and love those people give you. With that in mind, please show compassion and understanding to those who are not as fortunate as you are. Happy holidays.

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
Christmas
Thursday
Friday

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast

No, there is still no snow in the forecast.

Today will be sunny, with the free air freezing level (FAF) around 10,000′. Temps at 5000′ will rise to near 50 degrees. Wind will be NW 10-20.

Thursday looks sunny and warm on Mt. Hood with the FAF at 11,000′, temps at 5000′ at 50 degrees, and W wind at 10-20 early becoming WSW 10-20 in the afternoon.

High clouds move in on Friday as a system passes by to the north. The FAF will be 10,000′ early, dropping to 8000′ midday and rising back to 10,000′ in the evening with temps at 5000′ in the low 40’s. Wind will be SW 15 early, becoming W 20-25 midday and WNW 30ish in the evening. We may see a few light sprinkles Friday evening.

Saturday looks to be in the upper 30’s and sunny and Sunday looks like upper 40’s and sunny.

Plain Old Local Weather

As I was writing the forecast, the sky was mostly clear, which was not what I’d expected. So, let’s cross our fingers that the inversion cloud stays away and we see more days like yesterday. Expect inverted temps for today and tomorrow. It will be in the low 40’s, at best, in the Gorge today, under (I hope) sunny skies. Thursday starts off near freezing, with temps rising into the upper 40’s in the afternoon. Friday starts in the mid-30’s, rising to above 50 with an afternoon westerly breeze as the inversion breaks.

Gorge Wind Forecast

The gradient at 5am was E .07, and the models are predicting 26-30 today at Rooster with 20-25 at Stevenson. Wind speeds look similar tomorrow. On Friday, a weak system swings through north of the Columbia, switching the wind to W 15-18 in the afternoon.

Road and Mountain Biking

Oh wow. I had the best bike ride yesterday: State Road – Cherry Heights – Sevenmile. Yes, there is some frost on all these roads in the shady areas, so be careful, but there’s not much gravel at all. I’m a gravel weenie, and I wasn’t ever afraid. So, for now, you can add those roads if you’re not afraid of frost. That’s my new favorite ride.

I could definitely feel the inversion while I was riding: it was noticeably colder down low than it was up at 1800′. That will be the case for today and tomorrow. Also, for your biking pleasure, you will have light wind today and tomorrow, with west wind on Friday.