mt. Hood - The Gorge is my Gym

Good morning!

Mountain Weather Forecast:

It looks like there’s a small bit of salvation in the future for melting Mt. Hood. We’ll see some snow this weekend before a return to high pressure next week.

Today looks warm and sunny, with temperatures near 50 on the slopes. Winds will be NNW at 10-20 today. The freezing level will be around 10,000’.

Clouds move in tonight and the freezing level drops rapidly to 5500’ by 4am Friday morning, falling to 4000-4500’ by 1pm Friday. Winds pick up a bit as a cold front approaches, becoming SW 22-25 in the morning, 25-35 by 1pm, and switching to W 20-30 around 4pm. Total precip during the day Friday will be around .1” WV, for an inch of snow. Most of the energy associated with this system is headed north of us.

Saturday looks cloudy, with snow flurries from 7am-4pm. The snow level will be at 4500’ in the morning, dropping to 3500’ by 7pm. Winds will be light and variable. Snowfall during the day will be light, perhaps 2”. However, snowfall increases from 7pm-4am Sunday, for total overnight accumulation of 4-6”. Total WV will be .3-.5”.

We’ll see snow flurries mixed with sunbreaks on Sunday, with the snow level at 3000’ and light and variable wind. Total snowfall on Sunday will be less than .1” of WV, for an inch of new snow.

At this point, models build high pressure back over the Northwest through mid-week. Rain and snow return toward the end of the week, hopefully.

Other Fun Stuff:

The Teacup Classic Nordic race is on Sunday at Teacup. Meadows has a rail jam on Friday night with swag and prizes by Da Kine, Trew and others. Coming up February 16th, ‘Wildwater, a Love Story’ plays at Columbia Center for the Arts. Get your tickets now.

No significant Gorge wind in the forecast, although it is blowing 20ish at Stevenson and Rooster right now. I know you really wanted to go play in 39 degree water, right?

Have a great day today!

Temira

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Good morning. Your weekend forecast is late again. You can thank the windy weather on Mt. Hood for that.

Mountain Weather Forecast:

Today looks cloudy and windier than models are showing. Models show winds at 20-30, and we’re seeing 50-60 at 8000’ right now, which has lifts on standby at Meadows. Anyway, winds are supposed to die later, but given that this front isn’t supposed to pass until late in the day, I don’t see a significant decrease in the wind (that should guarantee it will back off). We’ll see a chance of light, intermittent sprinkles – more like scattered raindrops – today as well, with less than .10” possible. By tonight, winds should be down to NNW 15-20. The freezing level will be at 8000’ today, falling to 6500-7000’ by Monday morning.

We’ll see more scattered raindrops tomorrow, with periods of steady light drizzle for a total of .1” of precip or less. Morning winds will be WSW 15-25, rising to SW 30-40 by 1pm, turning to W 30-40 by 4pm. The snow level will slowly fall during the day to about 4000-4500’ overnight, rising back to 6500’ by Tuesday morning.

Tuesday looks dry, with the FAF rising from 6500’ to 8000’ by afternoon. Winds early will be NW 20-25, backing off to “light and variable” by 1pm.

We’ll see light and variable winds on Wednesday, rising to E 10-15 in the afternoon, with sunny skies, no precipitation, and the FAF around 9-10000’.

Gorge Wind Forecast:

Today brings light west winds in the 13-18 range in the desert. Tomorrow looks light. We’ll see early morning westerlies at 17-21 on Tuesday. Winds switch by Tuesday afternoon, becoming east at 18-22 on Wednesday. The Columbia River is currently 39 degrees.

Here’s the sad word from NOAA this morning: “THE LONG TERM IS NOT CHARACTERISTIC OF A LA NINA WINTER PATTERN…MORE LIKE AN EL NINO.”

Somebody please do something about this.

Thanks, and have a great day today!

Temira

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