With an absolutely brutal weather forecast for this afternoon and evening, we’ve decided to pull the plug on night operations for this evening. We will attempt to run lifts through the day from 9 AM - 3 PM, but we may throw the towel in before 3 depending on the weather.
Today
Rain and snow before 2pm, then snow and freezing rain. Snow level 7000 feet lowering to 6000 feet. High near 33. Very windy, with a west southwest wind 36 to 40 mph, with gusts as high as 65 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Tonight
Snow, possibly mixed with freezing rain, becoming all snow after 11pm. The snow could be heavy at times. Steady temperature around 31. Very windy, with a southwest wind 28 to 33 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.
Right now we are preparing Mt. Hood Express, Easy Rider, Buttercup and the Ball Room carpet for a 9 AM start. It’s too windy on Shooting Star and Hood River Express and we don’t know if we’ll be able to hold Mt. Hood Express due to wind so good old Blue is on standby. It’s gnarly conditions, but our team is doing its best to get the lifts turning, even if it turns out to be a short day.
We’ve received 4 inches of precipitation in the last 24 hours - an inch fell as snow and the rest was a heavy rain. The snow is super saturated - wet pack with rain rot as described on our conditions page. The optimists in us is calling all this rain “three more feet of potential snow”. The good news is our mountain snowpack has recovered since we opened less than a month ago - and is now at 164% and 187% of normal water equivalent - and that was before this latest storm.
Be careful on the drive - there’s a lot of slushy transition, torrents of rain streaming down the road and even standing water. And you’ll still need chains or snow tires once you get to the passes, on our access roads and in our parking lots.
We can thank La Niña for delivering - this will fortify our snowpack and set us up for a great season of riding into May!
