The Gorge Is My Gym

MT HOOD WEATHER FORECAST

Hey skiers and snowboarders! Last chance for warm weather is today – things cool off tomorrow, and snow returns on Sunday evening. Next week’s Mt Hood weather will be chilly with on and off snow. There are hints of a bigger snowstorm towards the end of next week, but you know how these things go… Extended forecasts are notoriously unreliable, and spring forecasts tend to see precip totals drop as we get closer to actual events. Let’s look at today:

There are some high clouds out this morning, and they’ll stick around to some extent. Your sunshine will be filtered at times. The free air freezing level will be 7000′ this morning, 6500′ this afternoon, and 6000′ after midnight. Temps start in the mid 30s and rise to 40F or so at 5000′. Wind today will be W 25-30 early, but it should turn to SW 20-25 pretty quickly and hold. That SW direction doesn’t tend to affect lifts like W or NW does. Snow surface: granular. Wax: yellow or a red-yellow mix.

Don’t forget to spring your clocks ahead tonight! On Sunday, we’ll have a few high clouds to start. Those clouds increase during the day. Snow starts up late afternoon or early evening and continues all night long. The snow level will be 6000′ in the morning, 4000′ in the afternoon, and as low as 1500′ overnight. Temps start around 30F and slowly fall to the mid 20s. About 0.7” water equivalent (WE) is forecast overnight for 6-8” new snow. Wind: SW 15-30 most of the day, W 30 in the evening, and W 20 overnight. That’s probably just the right amount of wind and snow to refresh the slopes.

Monday kicks off with a few lingering flurries, turns clear during the day, and clouds up overnight. The free air freezing level will be 1500′ early, 2500′ in the afternoon, and 2000′ overnight. Just a trace of snow is forecast. Temps will be in the mid 20s in the morning and upper 20s in the afternoon. Tuesday starts cloudy, but another round of snow is forecast in the afternoon and overnight. Models have about 0.5” WE, so we could pick up half a foot of new snow. Intermittent light snowfall continues for the rest of the week. It’s possible we could see a bigger dump next weekend, but it’s also possible temps could rise a bit and give us mixed precip. Of course we’ll all vote for the snowy outcome! See you on the snow today!

GORGE WIND FORECAST

Hi friends. As always, it was good to see you on the river yesterday! While we’ll see light westerlies later today, it probably won’t be enough. There’s a better chance tomorrow. After that, the next chance for west wind is on Thursday. Ensembles are optimistic, so go ahead and pencil it in just in case. Today, Saturday, starts with flat gradients and light/variable wind. Westerlies pick up to 11-14mph from Stevenson to Swell or Hood River midday with light wind to the east. The wind goes calm again in the evening. River flow over the last 24 hours was 96-157kcfs, river temp is 41.36F, and high temp forecast is 61F with high clouds.

There’s a better chance for westerlies on Sunday as a front approaches and moves inland. You’ll want to hit the river just ahead of the rain. Light wind is forecast all morning. As this system approaches early to mid afternoon, we’ll see gusty 20-23 from Stevenson to Swell, then from Stevenson to Rufus. It looks like the Avery to Arlington stretch will rise to extra gusty 24-27 after 5pm. At that point, the west side will drop to 17-20 or less as rain starts up. High temp: 60F with high clouds early and more clouds later. Lingering westerlies stick around on Monday, but they’ll probably be 10mph or less. Next best chance for wind is next Thursday when, naturally, I’m working. See you on the river!

BARE BONES HOOD RIVER WEATHER FORECAST

Partly high cloudy today. Temps start in the mid 30s and rise to the low 60s. Light westerlies. No rainbows. Sunday will be high overcast in the morning. Clouds increase during the day, and rain arrives early evening. Temps will be in the upper 30s early and near 60 later. Light westerlies early. Moderate in the afternoon. No rainbows. Monday will be partly cloudy with lingering sprinkles possible around sunrise, then partly high overcast. Temps start in the upper 30s and rise to the mid 50s. Light westerlies. 11% chance of rainbows.