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The Forecast
| 4a-8a | 8a-12p | 12p-4p | 4p-8p | 8p-4a | |
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| Wednesday 2500′->9000′ |
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| Thursday 9000′->5500′ |
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| Friday 5500′->500′ |
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Mt. Hood Weather Forecast
There’s definitely a wild ride in store for the ski resorts the next few days. Heck, it started last night when the precipitation switched over to freezing rain and iced up all the lifts. Expect delayed openings today. Here’s the general idea: snow today turns to rain tonight into Thursday, Mixed precip overnight Thursday finally transitions to snow midday on Friday. We then head back into colder, drier weather for the weekend. Let’s parse this apart.
For Wednesday, Mt. Hood sees snow through early evening. The snow then switches to rain. The snow level will be 2000′-2500′ this morning and will rise to 6000′ in the evening and 9000′ (briefly) overnight. About 0.4” water equivalent (WE) is forecast as snow by 4pm. Call that 4-5”. Another 0.4” WE is forecast during the warm up. That’ll probably be 2-3” wet snow. We then pick up 1.0” of rain overnight. Wind will be W 30 this morning, SW 15-25 this afternoon, SW 20-40 in the evening, and then it will rise to a lift-stopping W 60 on Thursday morning.
Thursday’s going to be a wet day on the mountain. While the precip forecast isn’t all that impressive, we’re going to nudge it upwards thanks to strong orographics (low end numbers are those from the operational GFS). The snow level will be 9000′ in the morning, 7000′ midday, 5000′-6000′ in the afternoon, and 5500′ overnight. Precip will be all rain until sunset as 850mb temps hover in the +3C to +4C range. Expect 1.1” to 2.2” rain, probably the higher end thanks to super strong west wind. Overnight, another 1.0” to 2.0” WE is forecast. That’s going to be mixed precip, then rain, then mixed precip. This is going to make a giant mess of the lifts – massive icing is likely. Wind: W 60 prior to dawn, W 60-65 (lift-stopping, for sure) through early afternoon, and then WSW 45-55 from the afternoon on. It is likely our resorts will all be closed. This is a “why bother” situation.
A cold front forecast for Friday will drop temps low enough for snow, but most of the precip will be finished by the time temps drop. The snow level will be 5500′ early and 4000′ midday. When that cold front hits, the snow level will drop to 1500′ in the early evening and then 500′ overnight. About 1.2” to 2.0” is forecast during the day (again, orographic assistance is coming into play). This is going to be ¾ rain and 1/4 snow (just a guess) for a few inches of new. Another 0.2” to 0.5” WE is forecast overnight with strong orographic enhancement. Call it 3-6” new snow atop a gnarly rain crust. Wind: almost, but not quite, enough to shut down resorts: WSW 40-55 early, W 50 mid-morning, WNW 45-55 from early afternoon on through the night.
A few lingering snow showers are forecast on Saturday under mostly cloudy sky. Sunday looks sunny and colder.
Note on wind speeds. Different wind directions are experienced in different ways on Mt. Hood. For example, west wind at 50mph will hit the slopes and exposed ridges at W 50. SW 50 may hit the ridges at SW 50, but will likely only be SW 20 below tree line. Hence the ranges for wind. Depends where you are on the mountain. Hopefully that helps clarify.
Gorge Wind Forecast
Light westerlies start off Wednesday with 0-15 around the region. East wind at Arlington is 10-15. Gradients: W .09 and E .04. The wind goes calm midday and turns to E 10-15 all through the Gorge in the afternoon with 30-35 near Rooster and Stevenson. River flow is 149kcfs, river temp is 37F, and high temp forecast is 40F. Thursday starts with E 5-10 at Rooster, E 25-30 at Stevenson, and E 10 in the rest of the Gorge. By 10am, the far western Gorge, west of Stevenson (?) turns around to W 20-30. The wind remain calm in the central Gorge (or very light westerly). In the afternoon, SW wind at 10-20 is forecast east of John Day Dam. High temp: upper 30’s. Friday starts with 15-20 in the far west. As a powerful cold front swings through, the wind picks up to 30-40+ from Stevenson to Arlington and may pick up to 40+ from Swell westward in the early evening. High temp: 40F.
Coast, Jones, Coast
Done until spring, unless there’s an obvious Coast or Sauvie’s or Jones day.
Hood River Weather Forecast
Rain this morning gives way to snow then rain or freezing rain tonight. See TATAS for full details. Temps will be near 40 early and will drop to the low-mid 30’s in the afternoon. Light westerlies early. Light easterlies later. 1% chance of rainbows. Thursday starts with rain/freezing rain and turns rainy. Temps will be in the low 30’s early and upper 30’s later. Light easterlies then calm wind or very light westerlies. 2% chance of rainbows. Friday will be rainy and then will turn showery in the afternoon and dry overnight. Temps will be in the low-mid 30’s early and low 40’s later. Light wind in the morning. Nuking westerlies in the afternoon. 58% chance of rainbows.
Looking for a complete Columbia Gorge forecast? Looking for more humor in your weather? Obscenities? You’re looking for my TATAS: Temira’s Awesome Travel Advisory Service on Facebook.
Cycling
FREEZE-THAW ALERT: if you notice that temps were below freezing last night and will be above freezing today, don’t ride any trail that’s not under a tree canopy. If you do so, you WILL do significant damage. DON’T DO IT! Plentiful rain recently means most tree-covered trails are muddy. Please don’t ride them either. If you do, you’ll be doing significant and possibly permanent damage. No really, please don’t. There are lots of gravel roads and lots of pavement you can ride instead. Enjoy!
Local Events
Please let me know about events. I often only hear about them if you folx let me know!
Ferment’s Tuesday night 4-mile walk/run is back. Meet there at 6pm. At 7:15am on Wednesdays, there’s a run from the White Salmon Bakery. There’s a night-lit shop mountain bike ride at Syncline on Tuesday evenings at 5:45pm.
Sprinter Van of the Week!
Click here for the Sprinter Van map of the world!!!
Have an awesome day!
