How to find temperature estimates?

[swmalone]

I'm curious as to how you find temperature estimates for areas you plan to spend time in. In particular at the moment I'm curious about the Uintas.

 

[Rockskipper]

Crickets. Just go on out there and count the number of chirps/minute. Can never go wrong cause now you're out there. (Sorry, I know that was no help.)

 

[swmalone]

Crickets. Just go on out there and count the number of chirps/minute. Can never go wrong cause now you're out there. (Sorry, I know that was no help.)

That could work except that I have some hearing damage at ranges that a lot of crickets chirp at. We were in Yellowstone this weekend and someone kept asking what that sound was and I couldn't hear anything then my wife said it is crickets and then mercilessly taunted me for not being able to hear them.

 

[Rockskipper]

Not to sidetrack this thread, but I'm thinking of heading up there this weekend - was it really crowded?

 

[swmalone]

Not to sidetrack this thread, but I'm thinking of heading up there this weekend - was it really crowded?

Considering I had never been to Yellowstone other than in October it seemed quite crowded to me, but I honestly don't think it was that bad after talking to some rangers and other visitors. I'm in the process of putting together a trip report but once we got off the boardwalks it was fairly secluded. We did the Yellowstone Picnic Area trail and then cut up on Specimen Ridge Trail a bit and we only saw two other people.

 

[Outdoor_Fool]

@Rockskipper When I was there a month ago, it seemed that the crowds were way down from typical midsummer craziness. I'll be curious to see visitation numbers when they're posted next winter/spring.

As far as temps, I just use historical records on wunderground for towns in the area, check what the forecasted temps are for when I'll be there, then drop a few degrees for the higher elevations. SNOTEL sites also have high and low temps for every day, or hourly temps if you are only looking at a week's worth of data, so if there's a SNOTEL site near where you're headed, these can be really helpful.

 

[OldBill]

If you're near one of the mountains in their database, I've found this to be very useful:

Mountain Weather Forecasts

Mountain weather forecasts for over 11300 mountain summits around the world. Detailed 6 day hill, mountain and summit forecasts for up to 5 different elevations per mountain. The comprehensive weather resource is aimed at climbers, mountaineers, hillwalkers, hikers or outdoor enthusiasts...

www.mountain-forecast.com

 

[Mike K]

I use weather.gov. I search on a nearby town or lake (Mirror Lake, UT for example). Then I use the little map to navigate to the area I'll be. Then I click on that spot on the map. Not sure how accurate it is...seems to be pretty accurate.

 

[Udink]

I use weather.gov. I search on a nearby town or lake (Mirror Lake, UT for example). Then I use the little map to navigate to the area I'll be. Then I click on that spot on the map. Not sure how accurate it is...seems to be pretty accurate.

I do the same, and the point forecast (after clicking on the map) seems to be the best out there. For example, here's the forecast after clicking on Mirror Lake on the map: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapCli...724448137&lat=40.704476265663146#.XWXRXShKiUk

 

[Yvonne]

Not to sidetrack this thread, but I'm thinking of heading up there this weekend - was it really crowded?

I was there until last Sunday. It was pretty crowdy in many of the popular spots I guess, but I left early and spent the entire day in the backcountry and when I was done in the late afternoon I did touristy stuff.
I was prepared for worse crowds. I always found parking and on most of my hikes I barely saw a single soul.

So I would say I was not super crowded, lol

 

[Yvonne]

We did the Yellowstone Picnic Area trail and then cut up on Specimen Ridge Trail a bit and we only saw two other people.

The Yellowstone picnic area was my second favorite breakfast spot before I went on my daily hikes.
I did Specimen from the official trailhead and past the confluence with Yellowstone and to Agate Creek there was no one up there. I was more than pleased

 

[swmalone]

I do the same, and the point forecast (after clicking on the map) seems to be the best out there. For example, here's the forecast after clicking on Mirror Lake on the map: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapCli...724448137&lat=40.704476265663146#.XWXRXShKiUk

That is exactly what I was looking for. I was able to move it around and get an idea of temps for a few areas. Thanks.

 

[Jackson]

I can't tell you if it's exceptionally accurate or not when you pin down a very specific location, especially with forecasting several days out, but I really like the map feature of Ventusky and how it visualizes temperature and wind. https://www.ventusky.com/?p=40.95;-110.24;7&l=temperature-2m&t=20190902/1800
I've used it in planning trips before and it has worked fine.

All the other layers are awesome too. Like this heatmap of wind speeds for Monday on the coast of Florida, with a tropical storm expected to make landfall.

 

[MikeM]

I've been using weather.gov for a long time and it seems to be fairly accurate. I love that I can pinpoint on the map exactly where I plan to be.

 

[Dayhiker4]

I do it two ways
Do a search like this "Uintas Utah monthly weather" and one of the hits will be from Weather.com like this Uinta National Forest, UT Monthly Weather just pick the month and date.
The second way I do it is through NOAA Data Tools but you'll have to know of a place close to where you are looking to go. It only shows the historical normals for where you select from 1981 to 2010.