GORGE WIND FORECAST

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today’s gorge wind forecast

Hi friends! It’s another fine morning in the Gorge! Our friendly neighborhood clouds are stacked up against the Cascades, and the desert is baking in the sun like the cookies I’m supposed to be baking for Chris. This setup bodes well for today’s Gorge wind forecast! Westerlies will be lighter on Friday, but they’ll return Sunday through Monday as desert heating really outpaces west side temps. Looking deeper into next week, we look for the cooldown and potential for big westerlies. As of right now, that timing looks like somewhere in the Thursday-Friday time frame. But that’s a long ways out… let’s look at THIS Thursday…

Pressures Thursday morning started at 30.23/30.12/30.07 for gradients of 0.11 (PDX-DLS) and 0.05 (DLS-PSC). Little fluffy marine clouds were sitting over Hood River, and the metro area was partly cloudy. A weak system swings through to the north today, and that reinforces the clouds into late morning or early afternoon, which bodes well for our wind speed. Early wind was 21-24 (ish) from Viento to Arlington with 17-20 at Stevenson. By late morning, westerlies build to 23-26 from Viento to Mosier with 20-23 between Lyle and Rufus and 17-20 at Arlington. If the clouds can hang on, the Hatch will hang on as well. If not, it’ll drop this afternoon.

For the afternoon, you’ll find 23-26 from Stevenson to Viento with 25-28 between Mosier and Avery, 20-23 near Rufus, and 17-20 at Arlington. Swell, as usual, depends on how much those marine clouds burn off: if they go away, Swell will drop. If they persist, it will hold. For those of you eyeing the Executive Session (after 5pm): you’re looking at 22-26 from Stevenson to Rufus, strongest from Stevenson to Doug’s. River flow over the last 24 hours was 95-150kcfs, river temp is 68.7F, and high temp forecast is 80F for Hood River and 86F for Arlington. One last thing: offshore high pressure is really strong this morning. Sometimes that causes the wind to over-perform. Don’t be surprised if the wind beats the already decent forecast today.

RIVER FLOW FOR SITES BETWEEN AVERY (EAST OF THE DALLES) AND RUFUS: CLICK HERE FOR JOHN DAY DAM FLOW.

RIVER FLOW FOR SITES BETWEEN STEVENSON AND DOUG’S BEACH (WEST OF THE DALLES): CLICK HERE FOR THE DALLES DAM FLOW

tomorrow’s gorge wind forecast

Looking at tomorrow (Friday): we lose the marine clouds and add some heat. This knocks wind speeds down. Early wind will be 12-15 from Stevenson to Swell with 7-10 from Hood River to Arlington. It’ll take some time for the thermal gradient to build; strongest wind will be in the afternoon. For now, let’s call it 17-20mph from Stevenson to Mosier with less wind, probably less than 15mph, to the east of Mosier. High temp: 91F for Hood River.

extended Gorge wind forecast

Hot weather continues on the west side for the weekend, but even hotter weather is forecast for the desert. That gives us westerlies! There’s a fair bit of range in the ensembles right now, and differences between the Euro and the GFS. That said, 17-20mph or more (probably more – I’m hedging) is almost certain both days with somewhat stronger wind possible for Monday. Tuesday currently looks pretty light, as does Wednesday. Beyond that, we start seeing the possibility of cooling and associated stronger west wind. Timing, of course, is uncertain this far out. Fingers crossed we get the Right Kind Of Cooldown! Have a great day on the river today!

BARE BONES HOOD RIVER WEATHER FORECAST

Clear sky this morning stays that way. temps start in the mid 60s and rise to 80. Moderately strong westerlies. No rainbows. Friday will be sunny. Temps start in the upper 50s and rise to 90. Moderate westerlies. No rainbows. Saturday will be sunny. Temps start in the low 60s and rise to 90 or so. Moderate to moderately strong westerlies. No rainbows.