Friday: gusty moderate westerlies for a few days

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Gorge Wind Forecast

The first big storm of the season is moving slowly towards us. We’re set for a weekend of rain, showers, rainbows, and gusty, moderate-strength westerlies. Temps will be on the cool side, dropping into the 50’s and 60’s. Carefully consider your wetsuit selection!

Friday’s starting with easterlies at 8-11 from Rooster to Viento. They’ll die off fast. As this weather system draws closer in the afternoon, westerlies return. You’ll find gusty 14-18 or so from Stevenson to Avery after 2pm with light/variable wind in the eastern Gorge. That wind will only last 2-3 hours before dropping off to 8-12. River flow is 78,900cfs, river temp is 68F, and high temp forecast is 75F.

Saturday starts with pouring rain all the way tot he eastern Gorge. It quickly becomes showery with an unstable atmosphere. The wind starts light. IT builds to gusty 14-18 from Stevenson to Rufus late morning and builds to gusty 20-23 from Avery to Threemile in the afternoon. Caveat: post-frontal showers and thunderstorms are highly likely on Saturday. What wind there is will likely be unreliable, up and down, and prone to disappearing in heavier rain showers. You’ll also want to be aware of the possibility for lightning and hail. High temp: 65F.

Sunday looks a lot like Saturday afternoon: showery all day with a chance of thunder. The wind starts light and variable. It rises to gusty 16-19 from Mosier to Threemile mid-morning and picks up to gusty 20-23 from Lyle to Threemile in the afternoon. Caveat: thunderstorms. High temp: 60F.

Looking long-range… we see light/variable wind Monday, easterlies to 25 or so on Tuesday, and westerlies in the low 20’s on Wednesday. Model agreement disappears after that, so the wind forecast does too. Enjoy the first big rain of the season tomorrow!  

Coast, Jones, Coast

Coast (north/central/south, waves. Wind direction north unless otherwise noted. Swell forecast from NWS.) Friday: S30-35/S20-25/S5-10, Combined seas 11′ at 8 seconds. Saturday: S15-20/SW15-20/S10-15, W 8′ @ 9. Sunday: LTW/LTW/LTV, W 9′ @ 11. Jones Friday/Saturday: light. Sunday: 7-10. Sauvie’s Friday: S 10-15. Saturday: S10-15 becoming W 10-15. Sunday: calm.  

Mt. Hood Weather forecast

On vacation unless some wintry weather happens.  

Hood River Weather Forecast

Clouds stick around all day. Heavy rain moves in after midnight. Temps will be in the mid 40’s early and mid 70’s later. Calm wind this morning. Moderate westerlies later. No rainbows. Saturday starts with heavy rain and turns showery mid-morning. Chance of thunder and small hail. Temps will be in the mid 50’s early and mid 60’s later. Light wind early. Moderate westerlies later. 99.9% chance of rainbows. Sunday will be showery all day with thunderstorms and small hail possible. Temps will be near 50 early and near 60 later. Light wind early. Moderate westerlies in the afternoon. 99.9% chance of rainbows.

Looking for a complete Columbia Gorge forecast? Looking for more humor in your weather? Obscenities? You’re looking for my TATAS: Temira’s Awesome Travel Advisory Service on Facebook.  

Cycling

Dirt Surfer is temporarily closed while a bridge is replaced. It should reopen by the beginning of next week. With all this rain coming up, people are naturally wondering when trails will reopen. It’s usually not the first rain that does it – fire season needs to be over, not just dampened. Wait for clear direction from landowners before you return to their trails.

SDS (Whoopdee, Underwood), BLC, HFM, DGS, and Kreps Land (Hospital Hill) are now closed until the end of fire season. It is also vital that people respect this closure to maintain positive relationships between the landowners and trail users. DNR land in Eastern Washington (Buck Creek / Nestor Peak) is all closed to recreation due to fire danger. Columbia Hills is now closed to fire danger.

Open trails: Post, Falls Creek, Lewis River, Sandy Ridge, Gorge 400, Plains of Abraham / Ape Canyon. 44 Road: Eightmile, Fifteenmile, Bottle Prairie, Dog River, Superconnector, Cedar, Knebal, Cooks Meadows, 450 to the top, Gunsight, Underhill. Siouxon has reopened, but it is burned and heartbreaking according to trip reports.  

Local Events

IFPL 3 restrictions west of Highway 35 went into effect on 7/16. No more motorized use in Post Canyon trails. Mountain View Cycles women’s ride is every Thursday, bottom of Post at 5:30pm. They have an all-genders ride at 6pm on Wednesday, end of the pavement on Post Canyon Road. Their shop road ride leaves at 9am on Saturday for a 2 hour ride. Dirty Fingers has the Post n’ Pint on Thursday evenings at 5:30pm from the shop. They also have the women’s Post n’ Pinot Wednesday evening at 5:30pm from the shop. Oregon E-Bikes has ladies’ rides at 7:30am Sunday and Monday. The Small Boat Group does paddles every Thursday evening at 6pm at the Hatchery.

Other weekly events. Normally on Tuesday night there’s meditation with the Pacific Hermitage Monks at 5:15 (1 hour) and 6:30 (30 minutes followed by a talk) at Yoga Samadhi in White Salmon. In-person meditation is on “pause” due to the recent Covid surge. It will happen on the Pacific Hermitage YouTube page at 6:30. Triathlon practice with the Tri Club is Tuesday at 6pm at West Mayer State Park. Sailboat races happen Wednesday night from the Hood River Marina. There are also lesser races on Friday nights. Cheno’s workout is every Saturday at 10am at the Ferment Lawn in Hood River ($10). Families in the Park starts August 5th at Jackson Park and runs for several weeks on Thursday evening.  

Sprinter Van of the Week!

  Click here for the Sprinter Van map of the world!!!   Have an awesome day!