MileCheck / Mountains / Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens · 8,363 ft · live

Is Mount St. Helens visible right now?

From Portland and 4 other places. Read from the airport weather stations between you and the summit and the cloud layers at the summit.

The app

Mountain Visibility Forecast

Rainier, Hood, Baker, St. Helens and Denali. Visible now or not, the three-day forecast, and the sunrise and sunset light. $0.99, one time.

Get the app, $0.99 Android is in testing. Email mountains@milecheckapp.com to be a tester.
Right now · from Portland · Pacific time
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Reading the airports along the sightline.

Viewpoints

Council Crest ParkSunset · 3 mi
Rocky ButteSunset · 6 mi
Mount St. Helens Visitor CenterSunset · 54 mi
Hoffstadt BluffsSunset · 55 mi
Elk Rock ViewpointSunset · 55 mi

St. Helens sits north-northeast of Portland, so the sun is never behind it from the city. Sunset lights the west and southwest flank, the side Portland sees. From the Silver Lake and SR 504 side you look east into the crater, so sunset is the light there too, with the sun behind you. The summit is 8,363 ft, lower than Hood by nearly 3,000, so a cloud deck that leaves Hood standing can hide this one completely.

Three-day forecast and the light

The clear windows in the next three days, and the sunrise and sunset light on the summit, are in the app. $0.99, one time.

Get the app, $0.99

By region

Mountain Visibility Forecast

Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Baker, Mount St. Helens, Denali in one app. Shows whether the mountain is visible from where you are, the clear windows in the next three days, and the viewpoints. Made for photographers and anyone driving to a viewpoint. $0.99, one time. No account, no ads.

Get the app, $0.99 Android is in testing. Email mountains@milecheckapp.com to be a tester.
The app · iPhone
Mountain Visibility Forecast screenshot: Right nowRight nowMountain Visibility Forecast screenshot: Three-day forecastThree-day forecastMountain Visibility Forecast screenshot: Sunrise and sunset lightSunrise and sunset lightMountain Visibility Forecast screenshot: ViewpointsViewpointsMountain Visibility Forecast screenshot: When it is hiddenWhen it is hidden

Where are you looking from?

Each region reads its own weather stations. Twenty miles can be the difference between fog and a clear view.

From Portland

52 miles to the summit.

From Vancouver, WA

44 miles to the summit.

From Woodland

33 miles to the summit.

From Longview

36 miles to the summit.

From Castle Rock

35 miles to the summit.

Best time of year

Which months and which hours the mountain is most often visible from Portland.

Questions

How do we know if Mount St. Helens is visible?

We read the cloud ceilings at the airports between Portland and the summit, the cloud layers at the summit from the MET Norway model, and whether that cloud sits below 8,363 ft. No crowd reports.

Why only three days?

Cloud forecasts are not reliable past about three days, so the forecast stops there.

Why does Vancouver, WA get a different answer than Portland?

Different weather stations, different sky. The same morning can be fog in one and clear in the other, twenty miles apart. Each region page reads its own stations.

What it can get wrong

Wildfire smoke and haze can hide the mountain on a day the cloud numbers say clear. When the numbers are unsure, the page says so.

Observations from NOAA aviation weather. Forecast from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0). Smoke from NOAA NDGD. Times are Pacific time. Not affiliated with the National Park Service or any public agency.