If you’ve lived in the Mid-Columbia region for more than a week, you know the local running joke: if you don’t like the weather, just wait fifteen minutes. Or drive five miles. Honestly, the dalles weather forecast is a beast of its own, dictated by a massive geological funnel we call the Columbia River Gorge.
Most people check their phone apps and see a simple sun or cloud icon. But today, Wednesday, January 14, 2026, tells a much weirder story. While the rest of the country is dealing with a messy Arctic front sliding toward the East Coast, we’re sitting under a massive ridge of high pressure. It’s quiet. Maybe a little too quiet.
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The National Weather Service has actually issued an Air Stagnation Advisory for The Dalles through Friday morning. Basically, the air is just sitting there. No wind to scrub out the valley. When the Gorge stops blowing, things get hazy, and those crisp views of Mt. Hood start to fade behind a veil of trapped moisture and particles.
What’s Actually Happening This Week
Right now, we are looking at a weirdly warm stretch for January. Today’s high is hovering near 51°F, which is nearly ten degrees above the historical average of 42°F. It’s "light jacket" weather, provided you aren't standing in the shade.
Tonight, the temperature will dip back down to about 36°F. It’s a classic inversion. The cold air sinks into the basin while the warmer air stays perched above. This creates that persistent "gray ceiling" we often see this time of year.
The 7-Day Outlook at a Glance
- Thursday (Jan 15): Expect more of the same. Highs around 46°F, lows near 36°F. The air stagnation continues, so expect some morning fog that might take its sweet time burning off.
- Friday (Jan 16): A slight shift starts. Highs around 42°F. It’ll feel a bit crisper.
- The Weekend (Jan 17-18): This is where the sun might actually break through the inversion. We're looking at clear skies with highs in the mid-40s. Perfect for a hike at Tom McCall Preserve if you don't mind a bit of mud.
- Next Monday/Tuesday: Clouds start to thicken back up. Highs stay steady at 45°F, with lows right around the freezing mark of 30°F.
The Ghost of the December Windstorm
You can’t talk about the dalles weather forecast lately without mentioning the "freak" event from just a few weeks ago. On December 17, 2025, the town got absolutely slammed.
A sudden high-pressure cold front pushed down from British Columbia, and because of how the Gorge is shaped, it accelerated like water through a fire hose. We saw gusts hit 66 mph at the airport. It wasn't just a breezy day; it was structural. The Water's Edge medical building over on Lone Pine Blvd actually had its roof partially peeled off.
It was a stark reminder that in The Dalles, "windy" can go from a nuisance to a state of emergency in about three minutes. Christel Bennese, a meteorologist with the NWS in Pendleton, noted there was almost no lead-in to that event. One minute it was calm, the next, it was chaos.
Why the Forecast is Always a Guessing Game
The Dalles sits in a transition zone. To the west, you have the wet, temperate rainforest vibes of the Cascades. To the east, you have the high desert. We are the "Rain Shadow" capital.
The city is technically a semi-arid climate (the science folks call it Köppen BSk), but we get these "subtropical pushes" that can spike temperatures into the 60s in the dead of winter. Then, twenty-four hours later, an Arctic blast can drop us to 10°F.
Microclimates are the real story here. If you're down by the Columbia River at the Brewery Grade, the wind speed and temperature can be radically different than if you're up on the scenic heights or out toward Chenowith.
Surviving the "Gorge Gray" and Icy Mornings
Even though we are in a warm spell, don't get complacent. January in the Gorge is notorious for black ice.
Since our humidity is sitting at nearly 100% right now with these stagnant conditions, that moisture settles on the roads. When the sun goes down and we hit that 32°F mark, the pavement turns into a skating rink.
Quick Tips for the Next Few Days:
- Check the Air Quality: With the stagnation advisory, if you have asthma or sensitive lungs, maybe skip the outdoor run until Friday afternoon when the air starts moving again.
- Watch the Inversions: If it’s foggy in town, drive up toward Sevenmile Hill. You might just break out into brilliant sunshine and 50-degree weather while the rest of us are stuck in the soup.
- Prepare for the "Wet" Shift: Long-range models suggest that by January 23rd or 24th, we’re going to see a return to heavy rain and possibly some "frozen mix" (snow and sleet).
Honestly, the best way to handle the dalles weather forecast is to dress in layers and keep a scraper in your car regardless of what the morning sun looks like. The Gorge is a powerful engine, and it’s always running.
If you're planning on traveling over the passes or heading east toward Pendleton, keep a close eye on the NWS updates for Friday morning. That's when the current "stale" air mass is expected to break, and usually, when the air starts moving again in The Dalles, it doesn't do it quietly.
Check your tire pressure today. Cold nights followed by 50-degree days will mess with your sensors. Make sure your wiper fluid is rated for freezing, even if the afternoons feel like spring. This "January Thaw" is nice, but winter in Wasco County is never really over until at least late March.