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

Good morning!

It’s still raining on the snow in the mountains. If you want to hit the ski areas, feel free, although you’d better do so this morning before another round of tropical rain hits Mt. Hood around midday for another 2” or rain or so by tomorrow.

Tomorrow looks rainy, but it looks like the weather will improve on the slopes tomorrow night, with snow levels slowly dropping to 5000 feet by early Tuesday morning. With 1-1.5” of water equivalent expected during the day Monday, conditions on the slopes should be pow-pow (or at least new snow) over wet muck, with decent bonding, by Monday night. It’s hard to say how much of that moisture will fall as snow and how much will fall as rain. I can tell you winds will be light, at 10-20 on Monday.

Snow levels keep falling during the day Tuesday, bottoming out around 2500 feet. However, winds will be in the 30-40mph range all day Tuesday. If you can handle the wind, conditions on the slopes should be worth the drive by Tuesday afternoon. We’re expecting another 1-1.5” of water value during the day Tuesday, so by Wednesday morning, we’re looking at a total 12-15” of pow-pow, maybe even more.

Wednesday looks cold, with snow levels around 3500 feet, winds at 15-25mph, and 3-5” of snow falling during the day.

Winsurfers and kiters will have a chance to hit the river Tuesday afternoon after a strong cold front passes. Gusty 30+mph out in the desert seems like a safe call.

If you’re a boater, the Hood is at a stunning 7.46 feet this morning, the Klickitat’s at a really nice 1180 cfs, and I don’t have a read on the White Salmon. If you like looking at stunning whitewater, head to the old Powerdale dam site (go out Tucker Road, head straight at Nobi’s to Orchard Road, head to the T and take a left on the dirt road called Copper Dam Road) and look at Big Bear Rapid.

Have an awesome day today!

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Good morning!

There’s a ton of new snow in the mountains this morning, and your chance to enjoy it is now. Early. Go get it. There’s a gullywasher on the way later, with several inches of rain forecast to fall later today into tomorrow.

(And don’t forget about the winter storm warning in the upper Hood River Valley, where 4-8 inches of snow is predicted.)

The question, of course, is what time the rain will start at Meadows and T-Line today. I don’t know, of course, but I’m going to guess 11am. That’s just a guess, and it’s probably tinted with a bit of optimism about epic ski conditions early this morning. 18” of new is a lot. Winds will start out fairly light with this storm, but around mid-afternoon, they’ll start picking up. We’ll see averages in the 25-30 range this evening, picking up into the 30-35 range by tomorrow morning.

Models are suggesting we’ll get lucky tomorrow, as far as rain goes, with the bulk of the precipitation staying north of the Columbia River. That isn’t going to save us from the wind, however. Enough wind on the slopes to affect lift operations at all the ski areas Sunday seems a pretty safe bet.

At this point, it looks like this afternoon, tomorrow and Monday are write offs on Mt. Hood, with high snow levels, strong wind, and rainfall measured in inches. Snow returns early Tuesday morning, with dumping snow, 3000’ snow levels, and more snow falling all next week. Winds will be quite strong on Tuesday, picking up into the very strong range overnight, and continuing into Wednesday.

If you are a boater, you’re super stoked. The White Salmon was at 3 feet yesterday, and will keep rising. The Hood peaked at 7.1ft, and was back down to 5.5 or so last night. It will rise significantly over the next couple of days, likely going well over this week’s previous high of 7.1 feet. If you’re just a person curious as to what rivers are at or near flood stage, check out the Northwest River Forecast Center website. Here’s the link to the current level of the Hood River.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

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