mt - The Gorge is my Gym

Please support this forecast by clicking on the photo of the forecaster!

Your forecaster. Click on her to donate. Thank you!

Thank you for using this forecast. Please tell your friends about it! And if you or your friends think this service is awesome/useful/saves you gas money/makes your life more fun, make a donation by clicking on my photo above. Is more fun worth $50/year? $20/year? Donate what it’s worth to you (and thank you!), but $12 minimum gets you on the email list (with occasional giveaways) for a year. Thank you for your support, and have fun today!

Awesome local business – please support it

Come by Riverside Grill, Cebu Lounge and the Best Western Hood River Inn over the holidays. Excellent multi-day Meadows ski packages, or affordable guest rooms (it’s off-season, and prices are totally reasonable) — plus heated outdoor pool, spas, sauna. Great bands at Cebu, plus New Year’s Eve with Lolo Motion. And don’t forget Cebu’s awesome Happy Hours from 4-6 pm, Monday through Friday and $12 prime rib on Tuesday nights (except 12/31) Happy Holidays!

Random Morning Thoughts

May your new year (and the rest of your life) be filled with love, joy, and lots and lots of time doing fun stuff in the great outdoors!

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
New Year’s Day
Thursday
Friday

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast

Someone pointed out to me yesterday that when I’m depressed about the weather and the consequences of the weather, I make other people depressed. There are two things going on here: one, I love skiing fresh snow, and I love riding bikes, and neither of those has been consistently available lately. That bums me out. But more importantly, I’m worried about how this lack of snow could affect my job (that I love) and the jobs of my friends (who I care about). So, I owe all of you apology. I’m sorry for making you sad. My resolution this year is to be more positive, and not let my worries about the dry weather’s effects come out in a negative way in the forecast. But don’t worry. The forecast will still as brutally accurate as I can make it!

Ok. On to happier things. Today looks like a beautiful, sunny day on Mt. Hood, and if we can’t have snow, we’ll take sun! High clouds will move in overnight. The free air freezing level will be 8000′ this morning, rising to 9000′ in the afternoon Wind will be under 10mph from various directions today.

Tomorrow may start off with a few sprinkles, but most likely it will just be cloudy. The real rain starts sometime between 7pm and 10pm, becoming heavy for a few hours, and eventually switching to snow flurries Friday morning. The snow level will be 9000′ early and 8000′ in the afternoon, falling to 6500′ around 1am. Between 7pm Thursday and 4am Friday, we’ll see about 1” water value (WV), falling mostly as rain, but possibly giving us 1” of new snow at 5000′ and 1-3” at higher elevations. Wind on Thursday will start at W 15, rising to W 30 by 1pm and W 50 by 1am.

Friday starts off partly cloudy with flurries and strong wind, becoming clear and sunny before lifts start running. The FAF will be 2500′ in the morning, falling a bit during the day. No snow accumulation. Wind will be W 50 early, WNW 45 by 7am, and will slowly drop to WNW 30 in the afternoon.

Saturday looks sunny with light north wind and the FAF at 5500.

Gorge Weather

It seems to be partly cloudy or high overcast at my house this morning, and I’ll take that, because it means we’ll see sunshine in the Gorge today! Expect the temp to be just below freezing this morning, rising to 40ish this afternoon under high clouds. Tomorrow starts off sub-freezing and partly cloudy, and becomes cloudy with temps in the mid-40’s in the afternoon. It will rain overnight Thursday into Friday. Friday looks partly cloudy in the western Gorge and clear out east with temps in the mid-40’s.

Gorge Wind Forecast

There’s not much gradient this morning, but models insist we’ll see easterlies at 26-30 by this afternoon. Tomorrow starts with easterlies at 24-28, but those easterlies fade to nothing in the afternoon. On Friday, due to a timing error on the part of Mother Nature, we’ll see west wind at 28-32 early in the morning, quickly fading to W 18-23 in the afternoon through the whole Gorge.

Road and Mountain Biking

There’s a group ride meeting at Petersburg School in The Dalles at 10am today. Moderate to fast pace, I’d guess.

The Clymb: free membership. Cheap gear. Temira approves. Click to join.

Events – email me if I’ve missed any outdoor-related events

Join the Hood River Running Club, a new FB group for runners. And joggers. Like me.

Other than that, I have no idea what’s going on. Doesn’t anyone do a Polar Bear Swim around here?

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

Please support this forecast by clicking on the photo of the forecaster!

Your forecaster. Click on her to donate. Thank you!

Awesome local business – please support it

Random Morning Thoughts

Sometimes it’s no fun being the boss.

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Day
Thursday

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast

As I started typing this forecast this morning, I wanted to get up and eat some chocolate. Noodle kugel. Mac n’ cheese. Some comfort food. Because there’s too much riding on the weather taking a turn for the better, and it just isn’t happening. Or that’s what I thought at 5am. At 7:30am, it started snowing on Mt. Hood. So… for once I’m glad to be wrong about the weather!

This morning is cloudy on Mt. Hood, but we’re going to see some ~~sprinkles~~ SNOW!!! today before the weather (thank goodness) dries out for tonight’s slopeside parties. We’ll see .1-.2” water value (WV) this morning, so it looks like we might just get an inch or two. The snow level will be 6000′ early, 5500′ early afternoon, and 7000′ in the evening. Wind will be W 25 early, W 30 midday and NW 20 in the evening.

New Year’s Day looks dry and partly cloudy, becoming cloudy overnight. The free air freezing level (FAF) will be 8000′ all day. Wind will be NNW 15 early, becoming W 5-10 midday and SW 10 in the evening. Guess I could have just said “light and variable”, right?

Thursday. Oh Thursday. Why can’t you be something different than you are? Thursday starts off cloudy, but rain moves in around 7pm. The snow level will be 9000′ in the morning, 7000′ in the afternoon and overnight, not dropping until early Friday morning. Today’s forecast is better than yesterday’s, when I saw 2” of rain. Now I just see .6” rain, followed by maybe an inch of snow. Wind will be W 20 early, WSW 30 in the afternoon, and W 40 overnight.

Friday morning sees a few flurries, followed by clear sky as the snow level crashes to 5000′ by 4am and 2000 or less by 7am. The precip will pretty much be done by the time the snow level drops. We may get lucky and see an inch of snow before the precip dissipates, but it’s unlikely. Wind Friday will be W 50 early, becoming more northerly and fading during the day.

The weekend looks dry.

Gorge Weather

Well, wtf? Where did that rain come from yesterday? I didn’t predict rain, and then I went and got myself caught in it during a bike ride. Shows you how much good it does to be the weather forecaster!

It IS going to sprinkle this morning in the Gorge, but it should become partly cloudy this afternoon. We’ll see temps in the low 40’s this morning and mid to upper 40’s in the afternoon. Tomorrow starts out near freezing, rising to the mid-40’s in the afternoon. No precip. Thursday starts out below freezing, rising to the mid-40’s in the afternoon with rain overnight.

In the long-term models for the PNW, there’s another cold snap starting Monday, and then warm, wet air moves over the top of the stuck cold air. That’s a classic snow/ice setup for the Gorge, so we’ll have to keep an eye on what the models say for early next week.

Gorge Wind Forecast

We’ll see westerlies at 13-15 this morning in the western Gorge, picking up to 15-18 east of Hood River this afternoon as a cold front swings through. Tomorrow starts off light and then goes to E 15-18. Thursday brings light west wind, likely picking up late in the day.

Road and Mountain Biking

I made the mistake of going to Post Canyon yesterday, thinking the cloud cover would have kept the trails frozen. Nope. Seven Streams is a disaster, and Spaghetti has sections of mud. However, you could ride 12 Bridges (the lower section) then ride up Post Canyon Road to the top of Mitchell Ridge, which is in fine shape.

Also, a reminder: Whoopdee is closed for the season due to freeze-thaw conditions and severe tread damage being caused by bikes.

Sandy Ridge was still epic as of yesterday, according to reports.

For you road bikers, there’s a group ride meeting at Petersburg School in The Dalles at 10am on New Year’s Day.

The Clymb: free membership. Cheap gear. Temira approves. Click to join.

Events – email me if I’ve missed any outdoor-related events

New Year’s Eve is happening tonight, in case you didn’t know. There is no $12 prime rib at Cebu tonight. Woe is me. I had a dream last night that I was eating prime rib. For you joggers and runners out there, head on over to Facebook and join the Hood River Running Club, a new FB group for runners. And joggers. Like me.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira