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12/13 forecast



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Good morning!

My night snow reporter put this on the Meadows website last night: “Come take a ride on the Pineapple Express.” If you want to ride that train (and god knows why you might want to), you can head to Meadows, T-Line or Skibowl. A much better way to ride the Pineapple Express would be to go boating today. The Hood’s at 9.7 feet, the White Salmon’s right around 4 feet, the Klickitat’s at 3160 cfs, and the Wind River is at (are you nuts?) 11.5 feet. Now, that’s what I call taking a ride on the Pineapple Express.

If you’d prefer to ride the La Nina Express, she’ll be pulling into the station overnight tonight. Rain will change to snow from 4500’ up sometime between midnight and 4am. By tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have 6-8” of new on the slopes with snow levels dropping to 3000’ and temperatures in the mid to upper twenties at 5000’. The bulk of the snow will fall between 2am and 2pm. Along with this storm, we’ll see wind. Averages at MHM will be near 20mph with gusts near 40mph. Expect early morning conditions of dust-on-crust on the slopes, improving to deeper powder over crust by afternoon. Skibowl night skiing will likely be very good tomorrow night, as will the afternoon session at Meadows.

By Wednesday morning, we’ll have a total of 13-16” of new snow from this storm with snow levels at 2500’ or so. Another 4-6” of snow will fall during the day Wednesday, with winds in the 10-15mph range. Wednesday should be near-epic.

Thursday and Friday look dry, with possible sunshine on the slopes and a chance of (finally) seeing some upper lifts and terrain open.

By Saturday, we’ll be back to stormy weather. With cold continental air trapped in the desert and east winds blasting through the Gorge at the end of the week, there’s a good chance we’ll see another round of wintry weather in the Gorge. This is getting a little ridiculous, isn’t it?

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just want to recognize all the hard work that goes into it, please take the time to make a donation by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til November 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.

Categories
Forecast

12/11 Forecast



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Good morning!

There’s a ton of new snow in the mountains this morning, and your chance to enjoy it is now. Early. Go get it. There’s a gullywasher on the way later, with several inches of rain forecast to fall later today into tomorrow.

(And don’t forget about the winter storm warning in the upper Hood River Valley, where 4-8 inches of snow is predicted.)

The question, of course, is what time the rain will start at Meadows and T-Line today. I don’t know, of course, but I’m going to guess 11am. That’s just a guess, and it’s probably tinted with a bit of optimism about epic ski conditions early this morning. 18” of new is a lot. Winds will start out fairly light with this storm, but around mid-afternoon, they’ll start picking up. We’ll see averages in the 25-30 range this evening, picking up into the 30-35 range by tomorrow morning.

Models are suggesting we’ll get lucky tomorrow, as far as rain goes, with the bulk of the precipitation staying north of the Columbia River. That isn’t going to save us from the wind, however. Enough wind on the slopes to affect lift operations at all the ski areas Sunday seems a pretty safe bet.

At this point, it looks like this afternoon, tomorrow and Monday are write offs on Mt. Hood, with high snow levels, strong wind, and rainfall measured in inches. Snow returns early Tuesday morning, with dumping snow, 3000’ snow levels, and more snow falling all next week. Winds will be quite strong on Tuesday, picking up into the very strong range overnight, and continuing into Wednesday.

If you are a boater, you’re super stoked. The White Salmon was at 3 feet yesterday, and will keep rising. The Hood peaked at 7.1ft, and was back down to 5.5 or so last night. It will rise significantly over the next couple of days, likely going well over this week’s previous high of 7.1 feet. If you’re just a person curious as to what rivers are at or near flood stage, check out the Northwest River Forecast Center website. Here’s the link to the current level of the Hood River.

Have an awesome day today!

Temira

p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just want to recognize all the hard work that goes into it, please take the time to make a donation by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til November 2011, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.