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

Good afternoon,

Sorry for the delayed forecast, but today is my day off. I slept in and that’s all I have to say about that. As compensation, you get a paradox from NOAA’s forecast today: “Wet weather looks to continue beyond the extended forecast.” Hmmm.

So much for clear, cold and calm today. Tomorrow morning actually looks clear, cold and calm, until about 1pm when clouds move in. Light precipitation starts around 10pm, with .25”- .5” of water value falling by 4am for 4-5” of new snow by Wednesday morning. The snow level starts at 3000’ and rises to 5500’ by 7am. Winds tomorrow will be light, increasing to SSW 25-20 by 7pm, rising to SW 40-50 by 1am.

The picture gets ugly Wednesday morning. The snow level will be at 5000-5500’ until 8pm, for a wet day. After 8pm, the snow level rises to 6000-6500’. Heavy precipitation falls from 1am to 10am, with 1.5” of water value in that time period. Precip backs off a little midday, becoming heavy again from 1pm Wednesday through 4pm Thursday. Total water value from 4am Wednesday through 4am Thursday will be approximately 2”. Winds on Wednesday start out WSW 50-60, holding all day, and becoming WSW 40-50 around 7pm. I expect we’ll see wet snow (aka snain) down low all day, switching to rain late in the afternoon.

Strong winds and unfavorable temperatures continue Thursday. We’ll see heavy precipitation from 4am to 4pm Thursday, becoming moderate afterwards. Total water value will be at least 1.5” from 4am Thursday to 4pm Friday. The snow level on Thursday starts off around 6500’, dropping to 6000’ by 4pm, and falling to 4500’ by 7am Friday. Winds on Thursday morning will be WSW 40-50, switching (for the worse), to W 40-50 by mid-afternoon. That switch to west winds will kill most lifts at Meadows.

At this point (and this is a long way out), it looks like we’ll see delicious powder falling from the sky Friday-Sunday.

The Gorge forecast for the next few days includes a lot of chaos. Strong east winds blow from now until late Tuesday night, switching to westerlies around 9am Wednesday morning. Temps stay below freezing in the Gorge until Wednesday morning, meaning we’re going to see snow, sleet and the evil and deadly freezing rain. We’ll see .25-.5” water value fall on the Gorge, for snow early and a slick mess later, with relief in sight with the warming temperatures Wednesday afternoon. It still seems like we’ll see I-84 close due to icy conditions on Tuesday night.

Enjoy.

Temira

Good morning!

Mt. Hood is in a pattern of NW flow right now, resulting in orographic showers (yeah, that’s my favorite phrase). We’ll see light to moderate snow showers until midnight or so, with total water value of .25-.5”. Snow level today will be around 1000’. Winds will be NW at 10-20, dropping to light and variable late afternoon. We’ve seen about .1” of water value since 4am, so we should see another 3-4” of snow today.

Tomorrow looks clear, cold and calm with no precipitation. (boring)

Tuesday starts off clear, cold and calm (no fun to forecast), with increasing clouds midday. LIght wind builds to WSW at 15-25 by 4pm, increasing to SW 35-40 by 4am. Precipitation starts around 4pm Tuesday, with one model showing .1” water value and another showing 3-.5” water value overnight. Call it 4-5” overnight Tuesday. The snow level will be at the surface through Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, snow levels slowly rise to 5000-6000’ by 4pm from an overrunning warm system, falling to 4500’ or so overnight. At this point, I’m thinking we’ll see snow (because I am an optimist), but periods of sleet, rain, or snain (especially snain) are not out of the question. Total precipitation on Wednesday will be 1-1.5”, so call it 4-6” of sludge at the base, rain at HRM and 12-15” of snow up high. The real problem on Wednesday looks like wind. Early in the day, we’ll see SW 35-40, increasing to SW 50-60 by mid-morning, going to W 40-50 by 7pm. We may be protected from the worst of the wind during the day due to the wind direction, but there is a good chance we’ll lose some lifts. A shutdown on Wednesday night is a distinct possibility.

Thursday is a long way out, but at this point, it looks like we’ll see the snow level at 5000’ with 1-2” of water value for 6-8” of heavy snow at the base and 18-22” higher up. Winds will be WSW 30-40 on Thursday.

The weather situation in the Gorge does not look pretty Tuesday night into Thursday morning.

Have a great day today!

Temira