Weather in mountains vs closest town

[Neckbone]

How do you all go about estimating the weather in the mountains you will be hunting in?

The closest town to where I will be hunting in western Wyoming is 10 miles as the crow flies at 6500 ft in elevation. I will be around 9500ft.

in your experience how does that translate to the higher elevation mountains?

 

[mcr-85]

I use the NOAA app and drop a pin. It gives a weather forecast for that location, not nearest town, from what I can tell.

Sent from my SM-S938U using Tapatalk

 

[ceerdub]

I have been using spotwx.com over the last year with great success. You can pick between US or Canadian Weather model and it gives all sorts of detailed weather data for the elevation and location in question. You can change units once you select the model and forecast you are interested in.

 

[NMNomad]

Expect a 25–30-degree difference in temp between those two elevations. Wind can vary greatly also. If you are staying overnight. I live at 5600 feet. I went up to 10.3k on Thursday and there was a 25-degree temp drop, and a 20-mph sustained wind increase. This was in the afternoon before sundown. Mountain weather has a mind of its own. And it changes quickly. Pack plenty of gear to stay warm if you are staying overnight. Or, drop back down in elevation to camp and hike back up in the morning.

 

[Bluefish]

How do you all go about estimating the weather in the mountains you will be hunting in?

The closest town to where I will be hunting in western Wyoming is 10 miles as the crow flies at 6500 ft in elevation. I will be around 9500ft.

in your experience how does that translate to the higher elevation mountains?

For temp it’s 3-5 deg per 1000 ft. So 9-15 deg less

 

[wytx]

Find a local station that uses Don Day for their weather reports, check his podcast too: https://dayweatherpodcast.com/

He is a bow hunter and gets our weather right most of the time, he will give updates through his weather service on impacts to the mountains. We take a battery powdered radio on elk hunts for his weather updates where no cell service.

 

[Chris in TN]

Tagged. My plan is to monitor the nearest ski resort this fall.

A couple years ago we camped (six miles via BLM road from the nearest gravel public road) one night and 2" of snow was forecasted. We woke up in the middle of the night to 6" and it was closer to 12" by the time it stopped. Made for an interesting story/day/memory but a mistake I won't likely make again.

 

[Johnny Tyndall]

Some NOAA forecast offices publish backcountry/mountain forecasts. You can try poking around here. They all publish forecast discussions every 12 hours, which will usually tell you a lot more than the graphic for the town forecast.

 

[roadrunner]

CLIME (NOAA app) and Windy.com app