nte

It’s the 1st annual Winter Pledge Drive!

Thank you for using this forecast! It’s free to use, but it’s not free for me to write. I put about an hour a day into creating a (hopefully) accurate forecast, and I pay for the hosting on this website. If you use this forecast to pick the good days on the hill or on the river, if you find this report saves you gas money or time, please make a donation during pledge drive month! I’m just one gal with other jobs writing this for you! Your generosity keeps this going for everyone. I also send an email version of this forecast. Make a $12 or larger donation, and you’re on the email list for a year. No dealing with the pledge drive. Here’s how this works. If I get donations totally $15 or more today, I post a forecast tomorrow. To make this fair, I’ll try to update the color of the dot midday (a girl’s gotta work, you know.)

Tomorrow’s forecast status: 6:38am Thank you, Chris M. and everyone else for your support!

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Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Good morning,

We’re finally seeing something different in the weather, and the skiers are happier for it. Mountain bikers sported sad faces yesterday. Really. I saw them! Speaking of mountain bikers, a big thanks to the Girls Who Love Dirt and the Midnight Trail Fairy for working on Seven Streams yesterday. If you’re up in the woods, please take 5 minutes to throw sticks off the portion of Seven Streams that switchbacks past the Mobius intersection. It’s a big project, and your help will make a huge difference!

Also in bike news, the HRATS are raising money to rebuild GP. IMBA’s Jason Wells has a generous offer on the table: $2500 gets us 11 days of excavator work (it’s rental cost – the labor is Jason’s donation). 10 days on GP/Lower GP and one day in Drop Out. Please take the time to donate whatever you can! Do it now! HRATS is a 501(c)(3), so your donation is 100% tax-deductible. Thank you!

In forecast news, it looks wet in the Gorge today and tomorrow, dry on Sunday, and wet on Monday. Temps will be in the mid-forties today, and then in the low to mid thirties the next three days, but likely above freezing at river level. Wind today will be W 26-30 in the afternoon, east of Hood River. Tomorrow will be 30+ from Hood River eastward by midday, fading in the afternoon. Sunday brings westerlies at 15-18. Monday looks like W wind at 30+.

Up on Mt. Hood, the weather will do what it will do, and I’m still the only foolish forecaster predicting a period of rain today. Luckily, forecasters get to be wrong (what other job allows such a high error rate?)! Anyway, the freezing level today starts low, rises to 4500′ by 7am, 7000′ at 10am, 6000′ at 1pm 4000′ at 4pm and 1000′ at 7pm. So, even if it doesn’t rain, the snow is going to get very heavy and wet midday! Once this next system hits (before 9am, most likely), we’ll see lots of moisture: 2” water value (WV) by 4pm. That gives upper elevation slopes 2′ of snow, but lower slopes will see a mix of rain and snow, with a few inches of new at best, and that’s assuming it stays all snow. However, after 4pm, when the snow level drops, we’ll get another 1” WV for 10-14” of new overnight. On to the real fun stuff: wind. It’s not bad yet, but it’s going to pick up: W 50-70 by 10am, W 55 at 1pm, W 50 at 4pm and W 40 at 7pm.

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

Tomorrow, Saturday, looks like a darned fine powder day. The snow level will be 500-1000′ all day. On top of the foot of new that falls tonight, we’ll get another .5” WV by 4pm, for 5-7” of new, followed by another .3” WV overnight, for 3-4” of new. Wind on Saturday will be NW 35-40 all day, dropping to NW 20-25 overnight.

Sunday looks partly to mostly cloudy on Mt. Hood, with no snowfall. The free air freezing level will be 500′ in the morning, rising to 1500′ in the afternoon. Wind will be NW 20 early, going to W 15 in the afternoon.

Monday looks snowy. The freezing level will be 2500′ early, dropping to 1000′ mid-morning. Approximately 1” WV falls by 4pm, for 10-14” of new. Wind will be SW 15 early, W 25 midday and W 40 in the afternoon.

Tuesday looks cold with flurries, but models are disagreeing after that.

Light to moderate snowfall and cold temps continue through Tuesday.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

nte

It’s the 1st annual Winter Pledge Drive!

Tomorrow’s forecast status: 3:53pm: Thank you Chris R., for your support! Have a great night, everyone!

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Mt. Hood Snow Forecast – 5000′
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Good morning,

After weeks and weeks and weeks of high-pressure-dominated weather, we’ve slipped into a new pattern: progressive and wet. It looks like this pattern will stick around for the next week, meaning the mountains will wallow in new snowfall and the mountain bikers will make sad faces at bikes hanging on the wall, waiting for trails to dry.

As of last night, Post was really too muddy to ride through the clearcuts. Whoopdee was also too muddy to ride. Not sure about the Syncline, but after tomorrow’s drenching, it too will be gone for sure.

In Gorge weather, this morning looks partly to mostly cloudy. Rain starts up again this afternoon, and doesn’t stop until Saturday morning. Temps will be in the low forties this morning and the mid-forties this afternoon. Wind will be increasing to W 24-28 by early afternoon. Tomorrow, as I said, will be very wet. Temps will be in the low 40’s early, rising to the upper 40’s in the afternoon. West wind blows at 26-30+ in the eastern Gorge in the afternoon. Saturday looks partly cloudy with temps in the upper 30’s early and low 40’s later. Leftover west wind at 28-32 in the desert in the morning slowly fades through afternoon. Sunday looks partly to mostly cloudy with temps in the mid thirties early, rising to the upper forties in the afternoon with west wind at 15-18.

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

The Hollywood hype and promises of powder issued by the TV stations and Facebook and every other media outlet is not going to make the snow stay snow on Friday. Today, however, especially tonight, should be good skiing. The snow level today will be around 1500′. Snowfall increases after 10am, for .4-.6” water value (WV) by 4pm, giving us 5-6” of new snow. Another .5” WV falls by 4am Friday, for another 5-6” of new. Wind today will be W 25 early, W 30 by 10am, W 40-45 by 4pm and WNW 35-45 by 7pm.

Friday is my favorite kind of day: interesting weather! The snow level at 4am hovers happily at 2000′, but warm air comes over top by 7am, and the snow level rises to 4000’+, rising to 6500′ at 10am. It’ll stay there for several hours, before dropping to 4500′ by 4pm and crashing to 1500′ at 7pm. Precip amounts will be big: 1.5” WV between 4am and 4pm, mostly falling as rain, or if we’re really lucky, falling as very, very wet snow for 2-3” of new. After 4pm, another 1.1” WV moves in, for 8-13” of new snow by Saturday morning. Even if the precip stays snow on Friday during the day, accessing it will be difficult; Wind on Friday will be WNW 40 early, 40-50 by 7am, W 50-60 by 10am, W 60 at 4pm and W 50 at 7pm.

Saturday looks like a fun storm skiing day, although one model suggests more clearing, and one suggests more snow. At this point, I’ll stick with the snowy model, because we need more snow (very scientific, aren’t I?). The snow level will be at 1000′ or less all day with continuing snowfall. We’ll see .6-.8” WV by 4pm, for 7-10” of new. After 4pm, we’ll start seeing breaks in the snowfall, but will probably get another .2-.3” WV overnight, for another 2-4”. Wind on Saturday will be WNW 40 early, going to NW 35-45 by 4pm and dropping to NW 30-35 in the evening.

Sunday starts with flurries, becoming clear, with the snow level at 1000′ or less. Wind Sunday will be NW 25 early becoming W 15-20 by mid-morning and staying there all day.

Light to moderate snowfall and cold temps continue through Tuesday.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira