snow - The Gorge is my Gym

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Good morning!
*Sigh*

It’s 25 degrees in Hood River and raining right now, with a .16 east gradient still sending cold air from the desert into the Ditch. That’s a bad sign for the end of freezing rain. If we’re lucky, it will still end by noon, but I think we’ll see freezing rain until mid-afternoon.. I-84 is, miraculously, still open at this time. However, HR schools are closed.

Today was our best bet for snow on Mt. Hood, and it’s raining. Here’s the forecast for the next three days:
Today: warm, wet and windy. Tomorrow: warm, wet and windy. Friday: warm, wet and windy. Models for Saturday disagree, but the likeliest scenario is warm, wet and windy. Sunday looks warm, very wet and windy.

Want the details? Snow level today will be around 6000’, with possible periods of snow down to 5000’. Total precip will be somewhere between 1” and 2” of rain. Morning winds at SW 30-50 rise to SW 50-60 by 11am, becoming WSW at 30-40by 8pm. Snow level tomorrow will rise to 7000’ by 4am, with SW wind at 30-40, rising to WSW 40-50 by noon, turning to W 40-50 by 7pm. Total water value tomorrow will be 1.5” to 2”.

Friday starts off with the snow level at 7000-8000’, falling to 6000’ by 10am and rising back to 7500’ by 4pm. Total rain on Friday looks like .5” at this time, but a small shift in the storm track could up that to 2-3”. Winds Friday will be WSW 30-40 all day, becoming W 30-40 after 10pm.

River level forecast models are starting to pick up the incoming warm air, with the Hood forecast to hit 7.4 feet by Friday. I suspect it will be near 10 feet before the end of the weekend.

Have an awesome day today, despite Mother Nature’s nasty curveball!

Temira

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Good afternoon,

Sorry for the delayed forecast, but today is my day off. I slept in and that’s all I have to say about that. As compensation, you get a paradox from NOAA’s forecast today: “Wet weather looks to continue beyond the extended forecast.” Hmmm.

So much for clear, cold and calm today. Tomorrow morning actually looks clear, cold and calm, until about 1pm when clouds move in. Light precipitation starts around 10pm, with .25”- .5” of water value falling by 4am for 4-5” of new snow by Wednesday morning. The snow level starts at 3000’ and rises to 5500’ by 7am. Winds tomorrow will be light, increasing to SSW 25-20 by 7pm, rising to SW 40-50 by 1am.

The picture gets ugly Wednesday morning. The snow level will be at 5000-5500’ until 8pm, for a wet day. After 8pm, the snow level rises to 6000-6500’. Heavy precipitation falls from 1am to 10am, with 1.5” of water value in that time period. Precip backs off a little midday, becoming heavy again from 1pm Wednesday through 4pm Thursday. Total water value from 4am Wednesday through 4am Thursday will be approximately 2”. Winds on Wednesday start out WSW 50-60, holding all day, and becoming WSW 40-50 around 7pm. I expect we’ll see wet snow (aka snain) down low all day, switching to rain late in the afternoon.

Strong winds and unfavorable temperatures continue Thursday. We’ll see heavy precipitation from 4am to 4pm Thursday, becoming moderate afterwards. Total water value will be at least 1.5” from 4am Thursday to 4pm Friday. The snow level on Thursday starts off around 6500’, dropping to 6000’ by 4pm, and falling to 4500’ by 7am Friday. Winds on Thursday morning will be WSW 40-50, switching (for the worse), to W 40-50 by mid-afternoon. That switch to west winds will kill most lifts at Meadows.

At this point (and this is a long way out), it looks like we’ll see delicious powder falling from the sky Friday-Sunday.

The Gorge forecast for the next few days includes a lot of chaos. Strong east winds blow from now until late Tuesday night, switching to westerlies around 9am Wednesday morning. Temps stay below freezing in the Gorge until Wednesday morning, meaning we’re going to see snow, sleet and the evil and deadly freezing rain. We’ll see .25-.5” water value fall on the Gorge, for snow early and a slick mess later, with relief in sight with the warming temperatures Wednesday afternoon. It still seems like we’ll see I-84 close due to icy conditions on Tuesday night.

Enjoy.

Temira