Thanks for being here all summer for the wind forecast. It’s fall now, and that means it’s time for … more windsurfing and kiting! No, it’s time to think about skiing.
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Random Morning Thoughts
Did you happen to catch the sunrise this morning in Hood River? The western sky was a fuzzy, muted pink, and a double rainbow hovered over Underwood mountain. It was pretty then. It’s just cloudy now.
Wind guessings, prognosticatings and musings
Looks like the biggest spike the wind happened overnight last night, around midnight, at Arlington. But don’t you worry your little head – it was a short-lived blast of wind, enjoyed only by the owls and the deer and the other nocturnal creatures.
Honestly, I’m not sure you’ll find the drive east worth your trouble today. It’s not an ideal setup, although it is sunny out in the desert, which is nearly enough to make the drive worth it. This departing upper low is a good thing, but a lack of high pressure off the coast, and the accompanying lack of east-west pressure gradient, means the wind won’t be great. You could head east of The Dalles for southerly-flow-driven, gusty 20-30, and at least you’ll be in the sun, but I can’t forecast anything spectacular.
But then again, today in wind world is the best you’ll see for the next 72 hours: Tomorrow brings gusty W 13-15 east of Hood River, and Wednesday brings light wind.
| Your favorite beach | Dawn Patrol |
9am- 11:30a |
11:30a- 3pm |
3pm- dusk |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your favorite beach | Dawn Patrol |
9am- 11:30a |
11:30a- 3pm |
3pm- dusk |
|
| Steven’s Locks | raining | showering | sprinkling | dripping | |
| Hatch (subtract a few mph for Event Site) | light | 10-15 | 10-15 | 10-15 | |
| Doug’s / Rowena / Lyle | 10-15 | 15-20 | 10-15 | 10-15 | |
| Maryhill / Rufus / The Wall | 5-10 | 5-10 | 5-10 | 5-10 | |
| Arlington / Roosevelt | 20-30 | 20-30 | 15-20 | 10-15 | |
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Plain old weather
In rain news, NOAA put out a long list of rainfall records that fell over the last couple of days. Weather blogger Steve Pierce sent the list to me, but without the link, I couldn’t send it to you. That said, he was talking about Portland, where something on the order of 6” of rain fell during this storm as of yesterday.
Here in the Gorge, we’re a bit less wet, but the records are still falling. As mentioned yesterday, we broke Saturday’s record. We also broke Sunday’s record, with a total of .88” of rain yesterday. For September, we’re at 3.69”, meaning we need .15” over the next three days to break the record. With a line of low-topped thunderstorms headed our way at 7:15am, along with a big blob of yellow and orange on the radar (it really would be more fun if the color of the falling rain changed with the changing intensity of the rain), we’re going to break that record today.
For the rest of the week, here’s what to expect: rain today west of Mosier. Sun in the desert. Lucky desert-dwelling bastards. Expect a weak system to swing through tomorrow midday, for a few sprinkles. A slightly stronger system swings through midday Wednesday, for a bit more rain. Then on Thursday and Friday, bless the stars, we’re going to see the sun again in the central Gorge.
In snow news, it snowed all the way down to 5500′ last night. We’ll see the snow level at 5500-6000′ today, 5000′ tomorrow, and 4500-5500′ on Wednesday. The inexorable march of the seasons continues, whether we want it to or not.
Events n’ stuff
Speaking of seeing the sun, this is the time of year when I remind you about the quality of road biking in The Dalles. Truly lovely out there. I rode for 2.5 hours yesterday, and instead of getting drenched, as I would have in Hood River, I just got a bit wet. Remember, The Dalles is your winter cycling Mecca.
The rivers are up: The Hood is at 7.73′ (in case you were wondering, it’s generally under 3′ in the summer), and the Klickitat is at 1860cfs (just lovely).
I’d like to give you guys another gentle reminder to STAY OFF THE MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS for a few days, possibly for longer. Syncline dries out fastest, and it’s muddy right now. Guys, these trails are all volunteer-built, and when you ride in the mud, you do significant damage. If you’d like to get some exercise, I’m happy to take you out and have you swing some tools with me to repair summer damage. It’s fun, rewarding, and a great workout. It’ll make you buff. Like me. Remember, if volunteers are busily repairing damage, they can’t build new trail for you to ride!
On Thursday night at Andrew’s Pizza, you can catch the best movie ever: Rising from Ashes, the story of the Rwandan National Cycling Team. I promise you: if you ride a bike and you have a heart, you will be touched by this movie. And then you’ll go to the Team Rwanda shop and buy some rad gear, and maybe even volunteer for a month or two in Rwanda. I believe there is only one showing, at 6:30.
In meeting news this week, the HRC Trails Committee has a meeting tomorrow night at 5:30 at the Extension office. The HRATS have a board of directors meeting at 6pm at the fire station on Thursday.
Coming up at the end of the week, the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol swap is in Hillsboro Friday and Saturday. Saturday afternoon/evening is Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day at Cascade Locks’ EasyCLIMB trail. Sunday is the Ashland Super D race, a downhill race where you are (gasp) actually required to pedal hard on the climbs too. The ‘Two Dam Punks’ 10k is in Stable on Saturday.
Have an awesome day today!
Temira