The Gorge Is My Gym

GORGE WIND FORECAST

If you’re still seeing yesterday’s and it’s after 9am, try opening this in an incognito window

today’s gorge wind forecast

Hi friends! A couple more days of somewhat unstable, somewhat unpredictable weather are on tap. On Thursday, a low moves into Idaho, marine clouds stack up on the west side, and we have a shot at a big day on the river. Models hold on to decent westerlies on Friday. At this point, Saturday is questionable, and uncertainty from Sunday on leaves us grasping at straws. I’ll be back at Cloud Mountain this weekend, but I’ll try and get out a quick forecast each day – I’m assisting, not retreating, so I might just be able to pull this off!

Let’ take a look at Tuesday morning, shall we? Pressures at 6am were 29.94/29.88/29.87 for early gradients of 0.06/0.01. Marine clouds were stacked up against the Cascade, and a few were past Hood River. Those will burn back today, but we’ll also have instability and the potential for rain this afternoon west of Celilo.

Dawn Patrol wind wasn’t doing much: 5-10mph everywhere except Viento-Hatch. That zone was reading 13-16mph on the iWind/iKite sensors to start the day. By mid-morning, we should see 15-18mph from Viento to Doug’s with 11-14mph at Stevenson (cloudy) and Avery. That, if the models are correct, is the max we’ll see west of Lyle today. Thanks to desert heat, models nudge the wind up to 21-24mph from Lyle to Rufus after 2pm and from Lyle to Arlington after 5pm. We could potentially see 23-26mph, but there’s a complications: those same models also indicate surface-based instability and the potential for thunderstorms (or plain old showers) west of Celilo this afternoon as a low moves into Idaho/eastern WA; if those materialize, all bets are off on the wind anywhere in the Gorge. River flow over the last 24 hours was 60-76kcfs, river temp is 72.5F (potentially lethal to spawning salmon), and high temp forecast is 77F for Hood River and 83F for Rufus.

RIVER FLOW FOR SITES BETWEEN AVERY (EAST OF THE DALLES) AND RUFUS: CLICK HERE FOR JOHN DAY DAM FLOW.

RIVER FLOW FOR SITES BETWEEN STEVENSON AND DOUG’S BEACH (WEST OF THE DALLES): CLICK HERE FOR THE DALLES DAM FLOW

tomorrow’s gorge wind forecast

That low lingers in the desert on Wednesday, and marine clouds once again make an appearance. Models have dawn patrol at 21-24mph from Viento to Mosier with 11-14mph from Lyle to Doug’s and 19-23mph from Maryhill to Boardman. The wind east of The Dalles backs off mid-morning. Viento to Doug’s (maybe Rufus) holds at 21-24mph. Stevenson, buried in marine clouds, probably stays at 13-16mph for the morning. Afternoon wind looks like 19-22mph from Stevenson to Hood River with 22-25mph from Lyle to Rufus and 17-20mph at Arlington. High temp: 75F for Hood River and 82F for Rufus. Do expect the wind to be extra-gusty; surface-based instability will still be present.

extended Gorge wind forecast

On Thursday, a low moves into Idaho, marine clouds persist for most of the day, and the atmosphere stabilizes. These are all good things! While there’s still a fair bit of uncertainty in the euro ensembles, a decent day on the river is nearly certain. The GFS deterministic gives us 27-30mph+ at the Hatch. The Euro, which focuses on areas east of The Dalles, has 26-29mph out there (which is, remember, not equivalent to 26-29mph at the Hatch – it’s more like 20-23mph). Anyway… there’s some disagreement between the Euro and GFS on the details, but it does seem like a good setup, and I think you can pencil it in as a good day.

Inland ridging (heat, stable weather) builds on Friday. But we’ll still have marine clouds, and we should have decent wind – low 20s, at least. Saturday, thanks to that ridging, looks a bit lighter. Once we get to Sunday, forecasts are all over the map; it does look like we’ll see some sort of temp drop and associated cooldown wind, but there’s still 11 degrees of spread in the forecast high for Sunday. Uncertainty continues into next week, when most days have around a 10 degree spread in the forecast highs. So, we’ll leave it there for now. Have a great day on the Nch’i Wana!

BARE BONES HOOD RIVER WEATHER FORECAST

Clouds this morning and partly high overcast later with a chance of showers. Temps start in the low 60s and rise to the upper 70s. Moderate westerlies. 16% chance of rainbows. Wednesday will be cloudy then mostly clear. Temps start in the mid 50s and rise to the mid 70s. Moderate to moderately strong westerlies. No rainbows. Thursday will be cloudy then partly cloudy. Temps start in the upper 50s and rise to the low 70s. Strong westerlies. No rainbows.