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Random Morning Thoughts
Three-day-old coffee is much better cold than hot.
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Mt. Hood Snow Forecast
First things first. Friday at Skibowl, you can ski free 9am-4pm in exchange for 8 cans of food, preferably peanut butter, chili, soups, canned meats, fruits and vegetables. Yes, Spam is appreciated. The food goes to the Portland Police Bureau Sunshine Division. In 26 years, Skibowl has donated 57 tons of food. Awesome. Will Friday be a good day? Yep. There will be fresh snow on the ground!
Today looks cloudy on Mt. Hood. The freezing level will be around 5000′ all day, dropping to 3500′ overnight. Precip starts around 2pm or maybe 5pm or maybe 8pm, depending on how things shake out. Anyway, we’ll see .5-.7” water value (WV) tonight, for 4-6” of new snow by Friday morning. Wind today will be SW 20-30 all day.
Friday morning sees the tail end of the weather system moving through, leaving the mountains with blue sky above and some mid-level clouds, along with orographic snow flurries. The snow level will be 3000′ pretty much all day. We’ll see .2” WV during the day, for a couple more inches of snow. That will be followed by up to an inch overnight. Wind will be WSW 20-25 early and W 25-30 in the afternoon.
Saturday starts with low clouds and some orographic flurries. The snow level will be 3000′ early, 4500′ in the afternoon and 5000′ in the evening as a warm front moves in. More on that in a bit. We’ll see .2-.3” WV during the day, for 1-2” of new snow, followed by .5-.7” WV overnight. That’s a bit more difficult – with warmer air moving in, it’s possible that will fall as rain. But I suspect it will fall as dense, heavy snow, maybe 2-3” of new. Anyway, wind on Saturday will be W 20 early becoming WSW 25 midday and W 35 overnight.
Sunday’s a tough call at this point. We’ll definitely see warming temps. And some precip. But how much precip and just how warm is up in the air (no pun intended) So is wind speed and direction. As a matter of fact, at this point, I have no idea how Sunday will shake out. So let’s wait and see!
Gorge Wind
We’re still stuck in a wintry pattern with a series of (weak) systems moving through the Gorge. Once again, not a great setup, but next week, mid-week, holds a bit more promise. Today brings light wind for much of the day, picking up to W 10-15 after 2pm as a weather system approaches. Maybe we’ll see 15-18 at Stevenson and Lyle, but maybe not. Friday brings W 10-15 early and W 15-18 (gusty) late. Expect gusty westerlies at 21-24 on Saturday, strongest east of Mosier.
Gorge Weather
Someone took out the road sweeper and made Dee Highway real pretty. They did not do Tucker Road. Highway 35 south of the sawmill is in decent shape as well. As for the trails, well, I suspect Post is still a little muddy, but you couldn’t go wrong at Syncline today. And probably Whoopdee is okay too. Huh. Maybe I better go check it out on my new 42T OneX green chainring.
Road and Mountain Biking
As I mentioned before, Friday is Sunshine Division ski free day at Skibowl in exchange for 8 cans of food. Today at 3:30 at Henkle Middle School, you can play Pickup Rugby. On Saturday at Skibowl, it’s the King and Queen of the Mountain event, where racers go fast, throw big tricks, and just plain do awesome stuff. Saturday at Meadows, it’s the Full Sail Banked Slalom and Sunday is Hood River Appreciation Day.
I bet the roads are going to be awesome, if you can stand a bit of wind. I’m going to ride to Parkdale for the least windy ride possible on a day like today. Tomorrow brings light wind and nice biking weather. Friday looks a bit windy and rainy. The beginning of next week looks 70 degrees. I’m going to ride my bike to Vancouver. Does anyone know the best way to do this?
The Clymb: free membership. Cheap gear. Temira approves. Click to join.
Events – email me if I’ve missed any outdoor-related events
Coming up this evening, there’s Karma Yoga (free or by donation) at Flow at 4pm. There’s also ping pong at the Hood River armory at 6:30pm ($5). Tonight at Columbia Center for the Arts, come for a “Sense of Place” lecture: Writer and river guide Vince Welch will give a lecture on Oregon native and legendary boatman Amos Burg. Thought to be the last person to run all the major western rivers before dams made such voyages difficult or impossible, Burg was also the first to pilot a canoe down the Columbia and Snake rivers and the first to row an inflatable raft down the Green and Colorado rivers through Grand Canyon. That’s so cool. I wish I’d seen the Columbia before it was dammed. Actually, I wish I’d kayaked it. Amazing.
Have an awesome day today!
Temira
