MT HOOD, Ore. — It might feel cold down in the Willamette Valley, but try going up to the mountains. Thanks to the wind chill, temperatures in the Cascades currently feel like negative 15 degrees.
Temperatures were only in the single digits earlier Tuesday morning and Timberline Lodge warmed up to a balmy ten degrees in the afternoon. It was so cold at Government Camp, the icicles weren’t even melting under the bright sunshine.
The Timberline parking lot was packed by noon, looking more like how it tends to appear on a weekend day, but the skiers and snowboarders were definitely putting on more than one layer.
A chart from the National Weather Service that shows once the wind chill-adjusted temperature hits about negative 20, it can only take minutes for frostbite to set in.
But the bone chilling temperatures couldn't keep people like Adrian Knowler away.
“Personally I like the cold, I think it keeps people off the mountain like some of the more causal skiers, it keeps the locals like myself happy," he said.
Knowler said he knew exactly where to go in order to be better protected from the cold air. Stay along the east side in the trees offers protection from the wind, he said, and there’s better snow over there too.
More near-record low temperatures are on the horizon for the next couple of days, but that's not going to anyone from coming up to the mountain, especially with the great conditions that are waiting skiers and snowboarders.
The cold temperatures are expected to continue overnight and into Wednesday for the Cascades. The wind chill overnight could make it feel more like 20 below on Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning.