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! Complicated weather picture today (Wednesday) makes for a complicated and low-reliability Gorge wind forecast. Building riding over the next couple days knocks the wind down. For the weekend, it looks like a low moving inland will give us solid westerlies on Saturday and somewhat lesser westerlies Sunday, but there are a lot of details needing clarification between now and then. Looking at Labor Day (#UnionStrong, #UnionProud), we see the start of a warming trend and (probably) lesser westerlies, but there’s still a fair bit of uncertainty that far in the future.

Taking a look at the daybreak pressures, we have 29.92/29.82/29.82 for 0.10 (PDX-DLS). On a “normal” day, that would be enough to drive westerlies in the low 20s near the Hatch. This is not a normal day as you can see by the extensive cloud cover. A couple weather features moving through today drive thunderstorm potential early this morning and also this afternoon, and that makes the wind tricky to predict. If all goes as well as possible, we’ll see morning westerlies at 21-24mph (maybe a touch more) from Viento to Mosier. Stevenson, the Rowena zone, and Avery join in late morning. Rufus may briefly hit the 18-21mph range before dropping to 14-17mph late morning. Don’t chase the eastern Gorge today! Now, let’s talk about the afternoon: models suggest that this incoming weather feature will trigger significant instability. This will (likely) shut down the wind, or at least knock it way down. Add in the possibility for lightning. River flow over the last 24 hours was 88-176kcfs, river temp is 73.0F, and high temp forecast is 89F.

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

Moving on to Thursday… our best hope is afternoon thermals as central Oregon heats up. The day starts with 11-14 form Viento to the Hatch and then quickly drops below 10mph. Afternoon wind, if we’re lucky, will rise to 11-14mph from Stevenson to Hood River and 15-18mph from Mosier to Doug’s. High temp: 92F.

extended Gorge wind forecast

Weak high pressure builds inland on Friday. With heat on the west side and heat on the east side, we won’t have much wind. Early morning brings 11-14 from Viento to the Hatch. A little more wind is possible middle, perhaps 13-16mph from Viento to the Hatch, but even that is low-probability. Afternoon wind rises to 14-17mph from Stevenson to Rufus. High temp: 94F.

Looking at the weekend, we have complicated weather dynamics and a fair bit of uncertainty about the details of these dynamics. Generally speaking, a cool low will be offshore, and the desert will be hot. Thermal gradients look strong in the afternoon, which could give us 26-29mph from Stevenson to Rufus. That said, the offshore low is likely to turn flow southerly and drag in moisture; that combo could fire off instability and/or thunderstorms. Uncertainty is captured well by the Euro ensembles: lots of range in the possible outcomes. All that said, we should see enough wind to get many of you on the water on Saturday. On Sunday, the focus (probably) shifts to the Near East (Rowena area) and Eastern Gorge (Rufus and beyond). Best guess given the setup is moderately strong, quite gusty conditions that focus on the Rowena area with Rufus as next-best.

Ensembles then suggest a warming trend starting Labor Day. That said, there’s quite a big of uncertainty in how how it will get. Generally speaking, the wind looks light to borderline (westerly) through the middle part of next week. I’ll be on retreat Friday through the following Thursday. I swear the most likely outcome is that it will be nuking every day I’m gone, but that doesn’t always work out. See you on the Nch’i Wana!

BARE BONES HOOD RIVER WEATHER FORECAST

Clouds this morning with a chance of thunder, partly cloudy midday, chance of thunder again later. Temps start in the mid 70s (record high-low) and rise to the upper 80s (maybe). Moderate to moderately strong westerlies. 5% chance of rainbows. Thursday will be partly Nothing (maybe!) and then clear. Temps start in the low 60s (thank the stars) and rise to the low 90s (too hot). Light westerlies becoming moderate late. No rainbows. Friday will be sunny in the morning with a few mid-level clouds in the afternoon. Temps start near 60 and rise to the mid 90s. Light to moderate westerlies. No rainbows.