powder - The Gorge is my Gym

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Random Morning Thoughts

There’s nothing like the feeling when someone you completely respect gives you a fist pump for something big you are considering doing.

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Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast

It’s rain-not-snow this morning on Mt. Hood. The snow level today will be 6500′ until 4pm, when it will drop just a bit to 6000′ and then fall to 5500′ around 1am. We’ll see ~2” of rain between 7am and 4pm, followed by a bit of a break, with increasing precip 10pm-4am Thursday for another .6-.8” WV rain switching to snow, for 3-6” of new, depending on when the switch happens. Wind today will be WSW 50 early, dropping to 40 in the afternoon and increasing to SW 50 overnight.

Thursday starts off with snow flurries, becoming clear mid-morning with clouds moving in mid-afternoon and rain starting after midnight. The snow level will be 3000′ for much of the day, rising to 6000′ around 10pm and 7000′ around 1am. We’ll get around 1.5” WV between midnight Thursday and 4am Friday, and that will fall as rain. Wind will be WSW 45 early, becoming W 35 midday and dropping to SW 20 in the afternoon as the next system approaches. The wind will pick up to SW 45 overnight.

Friday starts very, very rainy, switching to snowy, with 2” water value falling between 4am and 4pm. The snow level will be 8000′ early, 6500′ at 7am, 4500′ at 10am, and 3500′ at 1pm, holding overnight. It’s hard to make a good prediction this far out, but it looks like we’ll see a lot of rain followed by some snow. How many inches of snow is hard to say at this point. Wind will be SW 55 for much of the day, becoming W 50 early afternoon, and fading to SW 25 in the evening.

At this point, Saturday looks warm and rainy, Saturday night looks cold and very snowy, and Sunday looks cold and snowy followed by warm and rainy. But that’s a long way out to be predicting details, despite unusual agreement across the models. Please wear a helmet this week to protect yourself from falling pineapples during the Pineapple Express.

Gorge Weather

Today’s going to be a rainy day, with the rain decreasing a bit after noon. Temps will be in the mid-30’s in the morning, rising to the low 40’s this afternoon. Tomorrow looks partly cloudy with a chance of a few sprinkles with temps in the upper 30’s early and low 40’s late. Rain increases late Thursday night. Friday will be very wet until the afternoon, when the rain will taper off. Temps will be in the mid-40’s Friday. Saturday starts off dry, but quickly becomes rainy.

Gorge Wind Forecast

Over the next few days, we’ll have a bunch of weather systems moving through. That’s going to give us west wind in the Gorge. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be great wind – we really need weather systems followed by offshore high pressure for that, and all we have is weather systems lined up one after another. So, expect some gusty westerlies at 23-26 this morning, with a little more out east, fading this afternoon. Repeat that pattern tomorrow. Repeat it with a little stronger and longer-lasting wind on Friday.

Road and Mountain Biking

I had an EPIC session on my trainer yesterday.

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

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

There’s Karma Yoga (free or by donation) at Flow tonight at 4pm. There’s ping pong ($5) at the Hood River Armory at 6:30pm.

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!

Random Morning Thoughts

I went skiing in the Gorge again yesterday. It was, despite the heavy, wet snow and the freezing rain falling on my head, another magical Gorge skiing experience.

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Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

Mt. Hood Snow Forecast

It’s dumping snow on Mt. Hood this morning. And that’s a good start to the forecast, but I want to digress a bit, because I just took a look at the Northwest River Forecast Center’s 10 day precip model. Now, you’re well aware of how I feel about long-range models, but this model is currently showing approximately 13” of water value falling on Mt. Hood in the next 10 days. That will alternate between rain and snow, but it’s going to do a lot for our snowpack totals.

Expect a wild week on Mt. Hood. Today starts with snow. The snow level will be 4000′ early, 5500′ at 7pm, and 9000′ around midnight. We’ll see decreasing snow flurries this morning for .1-.2” water value and 1-2” more snow before 4pm, with increasing precip after 4pm, for 1.5-2” WV overnight. We’ll likely see 2-4” of snow before we see a switch to rain. Then we’ll see 1.5”+ of rain overnight. Wind today will be W 35 early, dropping to W 20 midday. Then we’ll see the wind ramp up out of the SW, slowly climbing to SW 45 around 10pm and WSW 60 by 1am.

Wednesday morning starts with the snow level around 8000′, dropping to 7000′ mid-morning and finally falling to 5500′ by 10pm. We’ll see 2” or so WV fall as rain before 4pm. Then we’ll see a break in the weather, followed by increasing snow mixed with rain after 10pm, for .4-.6” WV and 2-4” of new snow by Thursday morning. Wind on Wednesday will be a most difficult W 60 early, dropping to W 45 mid-morning and becoming WSW 45-50 in the afternoon and evening.

Thursday sees the snow level fall to 3000′ by 4am and then rise to 4500′ at 4pm, 5500′ at 7pm, and somewhere around 6500-7000′ overnight. It actually looks partly cloudy with sunbreaks during the day on Thursday before the next system moves in during the afternoon. When the next system moves in around 7pm, it will likely hit as rain, 1” or so of it. Wind Thursday will be W 40 early, dropping through the day to W 20, and becoming SW 30 overnight.

Friday is a little far out to be predicting the exact timing of things, but as of now, it looks like Friday will start with massive rain and then switch mid-morning to massive snowfall with strong wind.

Gorge Weather

Well, this is annoying. It was 31 degrees and pouring rain at my house in Hood River when I woke up this morning. I thought for sure we were done with this when the roads thawed and the temps climbed above freezing yesterday. With no forecast of increasing west gradient today, we’re waiting for the power of the sun and an incoming warm front to scour the rest of this cold air. Hurry up, sun. Hurry up, warm front.

Models are not handling this at all. So, expect a slow warmup to the upper 30’s this afternoon with decreasing rain during the day picking up to a torrential downpour after 7pm tonight. Make sure your storm drains are clear of snow.

Temps will be in the mid-40’s tomorrow morning in the Gorge, rising to near 50 in the afternoon with torrential rain falling during the day, with a chance of partly cloudy sky mid-afternoon, with lighter rain falling overnight.

Thursday starts off with temps in the low 40’s, rising to the upper 40’s in the afternoon. It will be partly cloudy during the day, with rain starting again in the evening. At this point, it looks like we’ll see massive amounts of rain again on Friday into Saturday.

Gorge Wind Forecast

We have a W .02 gradient this morning, which apparently isn’t enough to scour out the cold air, and that’s not going to increase today. We’ll see a switch to light east this afternoon as the next low pressure system approaches the coast. As the system passes tonight, we’ll see west wind at 24-28 tomorrow morning, fading to 15-18 in the afternoon. Another system swings through tomorrow, giving us west wind at 26-30 on Thursday morning, fading quickly.

Road and Mountain Biking

My friend Morgan wanted me to come over and ride bike trainer in the garage with him yesterday. Instead I made him go skinning at Super Secret Spot #1 in the Gorge. The snow was heavy, but the slope was fantastic, with no rocks and a continuous line down. It was so much fun that we made two laps despite the freezing rain.

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

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

The rugby people will be playing rugby in the wet snow tonight at Collins Field at 5:30. The kayakers will be playing polo in the wet pool tonight at 8pm. And Cebu will be serving up moist $12 prime rib in the warm and cozy bar tonight from 5pm-9pm.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira