Hurricane Ridge was a little schizophrenic weather-wise on Wednesday — not surprising since a warm and wet system had slammed into the area.
According to the Northwest Weather and Avalanche web site, the temperature at the Ridge went from a low of 32 degrees at 10 p.m. Tuesday to a high of 35 degrees from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. Wednesday.
The wind also died down to almost nothing.
But it started to get colder toward dawn, and the temperature kept falling to a low of 32 degrees at 1 p.m. when the wind picked up to an breezy average of 19 mph.
What this all means is that the weather might be slowly turning for the better — more snow, hopefully — for winter sports enthusiasts anxious to get up to the Ridge to start skiing and snowboarding.
The weather is falling into a pattern that Ridge mountain manager Craig Hofer expected.
“The weather hasn’t done much the last three weeks,” he said Wednesday.
“My guess was that it first would come in as rain, but then would switch to snow and [dump a lot of snow].”
The current weather forecast is predicting a colder front following on the heels of Wednesday’s warm-winter front.
“The weather is following a pattern it has done for years and years,” said Hofer.
Hofer, who is not in a panic just because the snow is a few weeks late, is optimistic about this season’s outlook.
It’s not unusual for a storm to dump a lot of snow on the Ridge quickly, he added.
“There is a good chance that in a week or two weeks everybody will be happy. We shall see.”
The good news is that there is more snow on the Ridge this week than there was last week.
The snowpack stood at 36 inches at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
There was only 30 inches of snow last week.
“We have gotten inches — but we need feet,” Hofer said.
Three more feet would do it, he added.
Hofer and his crew are ready to install the rope tow for the intermediate downhill skiing slope as soon as enough snow falls.
The bunny hill rope has been up for a couple of weeks.
As soon as the rope tows are up and running, the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club will operate the tows and be open for business on weekends, including holiday Mondays, throughout the winter.
For more on ski and snowboard activities at the Ridge, including ski school information, visit hurricaneridge.com.
Meanwhile, Olympic National Park is offering guided snowshoe walks this entire holiday weekend.
The walks are set for today, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (New Year’s Day holiday) at 2 p.m.
To sign up for the 90-minute walks, visit the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center information desk 30 minutes prior to the walk.
The Ridge road is open daily, weather permitting, but all vehicles, including four-wheel-drive vehicles, must carry tire chains when traveling Ridge Road above the Heart O’ the Hills entrance station.
All Points Charters & Tours provides twice-daily van service from downtown Port Angeles to the Ridge from Wednesdays through Sundays.
For information or reservations, phone 360-460-7131 or email tours@goallpoints.com.
Road and weather condition updates are available at www.nps.gov/olym or by phoning the park’s road and weather hotline at 360-565-3131.
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Matt Schubert, PDN outdoors editor, is on vacation this week.
