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Good morning!
The internet went down at my house this morning at 5:20am, resulting in a somewhat panicked drive around Hood River in search of internet. Thank god for Bette’s, open at 5:40am. The coffee is terrible and isn’t waking me up, and the bright florescent lights aren’t doing the trick either, but at least I’m getting some work done instead of cursing my ISP while sitting on my couch in my birthday suit!
Today looks like a mix of snow and rain on Mt. Hood. Right now it’s snowing at the base of Meadows and the snow level is around 4000-4500’, but that will rise today, hitting 6500’ by 1pm before falling to 5000-5500’ by 4pm. A heavy band of precip is about to slam into the mountain, and will remain heavy through noon before becoming moderate through 7pm and light to mocerate overnight. Winds today will be WSW 35-40 early, going to WSW 45-50 by 1pm and fading to WSW 30-40 overnight. Total precip will be in the 1-1.5” range for 4-5” of heavy snow down low, with a good chance of rain and 10-14” of snow up high.
Tomorrow looks like my kind of day with lots of snow and even more wind. The snow level starts off at 5500’, falling to 4500’ by 7am, 3500’ by 10am and, as the system heads east, falling to 2000’ by 4pm. This is a powerful, powderful system, and is going to bring some punishing wind. SW 45-55 early (that’ll hit the upper mountain) goes to WSW 50-60 by 10am (that’ll hit everything), switching to a 100% disastrous (for all the hills) W 45-50 as the upper low moves due north of Mt. Hood around 4pm. Say bye to the lifts at that point, especially as the wind goes to WNW 40 by 7pm. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see winds 20-30% stronger than models predict tomorrow, especially starting around 1pm. On a brighter note, we’ll see 1.5-2” of moisture from this system, for a car-burying 12-15” of new snow during the day (I’d say more snow, but it’s going to be pretty warm early and the snow will be dense). Feel free to laugh at me as I dig my little Scion out of the Meadows parking lot.
Friday looks cloudy early and sunny later, with a chance of flurries (less than 1” of snow) before 10am. Winds will be SW 15-25 early going ot S 15-20 late. The free air freezing level will be 1500’ early rising to 3500’ midday and holding into the evening.
Saturday starts off with heavy snow (probably rimed and dense) from 1am to noon, becoming light to moderate in the afternoon. The snow level will be at 2000’ early, going to 3000’ late in the day. Total water value will be .5-.75” for 5-7” of new snow. Winds will be moderate, starting at SW 15-25 and going to WSW 30-35 by noon.
Sunday looks a little warm for my taste, with lots of moisture falling as either heavy, wet sow or snow mixed with rain. We’ll have to wait and see. Monday still looks like epic storm skiing.
Temira
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