Mt. Hood snow and Gorge wind forecast | The Gorge is my Gym

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Disclaimer: This forecast is for entertainment only. Don’t use it to plan your skiing, snowboarding or travel schedule, even though I do. Although I work for Meadows, this forecast is not endorsed by Meadows and does not reflect the views of the resort. Nobody pays me to write this report (unless you make a donation), so please share the link with your friends and help me increase my hits! Thank you!

	4a-8a	8a-12p	12p-4p	4p-8p	8p-4a
Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Good morning!

Well, it’s snowing from about 4000’ up now, and with models showing dropping temps today, it looks like Meadows and T-Line will stay all snow, all the time. The snow level will be down to 3000’ by 1pm, around 3500’ at 7pm, and back up to 5000’ overnight. We’ll see 2” water value before 4pm, for 6-8” of new down low and 20-24” up high. We’ll see another 1.2” by 4am, most of that before 10pm, for 4-6” down low and another 12-16” up high. Wind today will be SW 15-20 early, rising to SW 30-40 by 1pm and switching to W 30-40 by 4pm.

We’ll see a brief break in the precipitation Friday morning, before we reboard the Pacific Moisture Train around 1pm. The snow level will be at 5000’ early, rising to 6500’ by 4pm, 7500’ by 7pm and dropping to 5500’ by 10pm, falling further overnight. That means we might start with mixed precip or freezing rain, switching to all rain by 2pm, and back to snow around midnight, with .5”-.75” water value by 4am Saturday for 2-3” of new snow. Wind on Friday will be SW 30-35 in the morning, rising to SW 50-60 around 4pm.

By 1am Saturday, the snow level will be down to 3500’, falling to 1500’ by 7am and 1000’ by 4pm. We’ll get .8-1.0” water value by 4pm, for 10-14” of new snow, followed by another .3” by 4am Sunday for another 3-4” of snow. Wind on Saturday will be SW 50-60 early, SW 40-50 around 7am, WSW 40-45 by 1pm and then WNW 40ish by 7pm.

Sunday starts off partly cloudy with a system moving in early evening. At this point, it looks borderline for rain/snow, so we’ll have to wait and see. The extended forecast shows more wild weather, with dumping snow interspersed with short periods of the wrong kind of precip.

Finally, today’s Gorge weather: It’s currently 31 in the Heights and 32 in the not-Heights. Temps are probably going to drop a couple of degrees today, meaning there’s a very good chance we’ll see a significant freezing rain event. Please be careful out there. Also, tripcheck is calling it traction tires advised on 35/26, but the roads are a greasy, slushy mess. Don’t expect easy driving to the mountain today.

That’s it. No upcoming events to report. No mountain biking trails available to ride. Roads are covered in gravel. Only solution: go ski!

Have a great day today!

Temira

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Good afternoon,

Okay, forecast updates aren’t usually my thing, but I’ve been wrestling with Thursday’s Mt. Hood weather all day. For the graphical forecast, take a look at the previous post. Here’s the 2:45pm update:

Thursday’s weather for Mt. Hood is still highly dependent on the track of the low pressure system that will cross the PNW tomorrow afternoon. If the low tracks south of Mt. Hood, we win with snow. If it tracks a little north of us, we lose. Hell, we might lose and see rain all day, but if I were offered even odds, I’d bet on wet snow tomorrow. Here’s why:

First, the low is most likely going to track south of Mt. Hood and if that happens, it’s going to pull in cool air from the north. Second, the air at 10,000’ looks colder than it was today, so no (*******) inversion. Third, I hate it when it rains on my ski slopes.

Joking aside, the snow level Thursday at 4am should be about 6000’, dropping to 5500’ by 7am. After that, models show cold air getting pulled in at all elevations, resulting in snow in the Gorge and Hood River Valley with the snow level basically at the surface along the east slopes of the Cascades.

It’s not going to be cold at the resorts, but it might just be cold enough; models show 850mb/5000’ temps between -1°C and 2.5°C between 4am and 10am. That’s borderline, but with colder air above, this could result in warm, wet snowfall, even at temps above freezing. By 1pm, both models I’m looking at show 5000’ temps at 0°C or less. So… I think it’s going to snow.

That said, it’s probably going to be wet enough that you’ll be soaked through if you’re skiing, but it’s better than rain at 5000’. The question now is how much snow. Models show 3” water value between 1am and 1pm Thursday, with another .4” overnight. I think that 5000’ will see 3-5” of wet new snow before 1pm, with feet of snow higher up. After 2pm, I think we’ll see 10-12” of new snow down low with feet of new up high.

I know most of you don’t care about the wind, but just in case: 4am, WSW 25-30. 7am SW 35-40. 4pm W 20-30. NW 30-40.

Okay, that’s all for today. 3-day forecast resumes tomorrow morning (or you can go back a posting for this morning’s forecast).

Have a great night!

Temira