Good morning sailors, windsurfers, kiters, bikers, dirt bikers, wakeboarders and couch surfers!
I have some great news: Summer is here! Summer winds are here, anyway. We'll have sailable west winds into the foreseeable future.
Let's talk about yesterday first. I knew we had a problem when Stevenson had the high wind readings around one o'clock. When the wind is the right direction to peak at Stevenson, it's the wrong direction for just about everywhere else on the river, except for maybe Mosier (anyone have Mosier news for me from yesterday? Kris?). Just one more piece of knowledge for all of us, I suppose. If Stevenson is consistently reading in the 20's and nowhere else is, go kiting or go biking. Or go surf your couch.
Back to today. Despite the clouds and cool air, it's a lovely day. We're already seeing wind in the upper teens and low twenties, and things can only improve as the desert warms. Look for 24-26. I'm voting for Doug's/Rowena today as Bart's Best Bet (not that he has a say, as he now has an awesome high-paying job in the sailboat industry... three cheers for Bart!!!). Upper level flow is a bit northwesterly, leading me to believe The Wall isn't a great choice today, even though winds will pick up in the desert.
Tomorrow still looks like the day to clear your schedule, get off the couch, find a carpool partner and head to the desert. With gas hovering around $3.75 a gallon, I recommend driving east of the cloud line and waiting for the fan to turn itself to "high." Desert winds - and possibly Doug's/Rowena as well - will climb into the 30+ range. That's 2.8 or 3.2 for me and any other sub-200lb sane person. Dale Cook, of course, is not included in that category and will be rigging his 4.2 and hucking 40-foot airs wherever he is.
Thursday brings more wind, assuming your blisters don't keep you from three-in-a-row. With Wednesday bringing semi-nuclearity, Thursday's low- to mid-twenties might be a disappointment for some windsurfers, but will be a relief to most kiteboarders.
Road bikers will be suffering all week long. Mountain bikers will be enjoying the cool weather. NPR fans will be subjected to the pledge drive (they aren't getting any more of my money until they can keep our repeater going for a full week straight). And wakeboarders, well, they're not going to have any fun this week.
Have a fantastic day everyone!
Temira
p.s. Don't forget about 10% off new iwindsurf memberships (and ikitesurf) at www.iwindsurf.com/temira
Print | posted @ Tuesday, May 06, 2008 8:44 AM