Category Archives: Road Trip

Road Trip

Corvallis, Oregon to La Crosse, Wisconsin

Time to connect today’s two forecasts with a 1900+ mile road trip! It’ll take four days to get from Corvallis to La Crosse, will we encounter any surprises in the mountains?

DAY ONE

Some overnight rain showers should fizzle out by the time we wake up to begin our trip heading north towards Portland. As high pressure builds in over the Pacific Northwest, skies should begin to clear out as we head eastward on I-84 then northward into Washington in I-82. Dry conditions will persist throughout the rest of the day as we end our first day in Spokane.

DAY TWO

We’re going to spend a lot of time on I-90 from here on out. Like, the ENTIRE remainder of the road trip. Guess we don’t need that map anymore! What we will need are sunglasses since high pressure is parked over all of the Northern Rockies, making for dry and quiet conditions the entire way from Spokane through far northern ID and into Montana before finally ending the day in Billings.

DAY THREE

High pressure continues to keep a firm hold over the Northern Plains, so another day full of dry weather and bright sunshine is in store. We might see some high clouds filter in as we push into SD due to an area of low pressure down over the Mid-MS River Valley, but no precip should affect our travels. We finish the day in the small central SD town of Murdo.

DAY FOUR

It’s a pretty straight shot eastward today as our road trip comes to an end. Our friendly neighborhood high pressure continues to grace us with it’s clear skies and dry weather, and should make for a pretty easy trip through southern MN into La Crosse.

Road Trip

Macon, Georgia to Lansing, Michigan

Let’s all hit the road, shall we? Our drive through the western side of the Appalachians and up towards the Great Lakes will take a day and a half as we cover 859 miles. The interstates, along with the residents of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan will encourage a 70mph pace, and our first full day will net 559 miles.

DAY ONE (Monday)

High pressure, and fairly warm high pressure remains in control for most of the eastern United States. It’s a fairly warm high pressure too, which is good for windows being rolled down as you barrel down the highway. There is a stationary front across the Florida-Georgia border that could, in theory, bring about some isolated showers with clouds right as we get going out of Macon, but that shouldn’t last very long. There might be a bit of a pressure trough around the Smokey Mountains, but the only issue that might induce is some mountain fog as we slip through Tennessee. Other than that? No problem. We’ll make it to the northern side of Cincinnati and the suburb of Sharonville.

DAY TWO (Tuesday)
The wind might be a little bit more vigorous as we head northward out of Cincinnati towards Michigan, but we won’t really have any additional weather to contend with. Along with the warm south winds, there could be a little bit of mid level overcast, but that doesn’t dampen the roadways. It’s almost peak fall color season in Michigan, so enjoy the trip to Lansing.

Road Trip

Toledo, Ohio to Baltimore, Maryland

It’s interesting to think, but because of layovers and proximities to airports, it would take only 4 hours longer to drive from Toledo to Baltimore than fly, and that doesn’t even account for the wait at the airport. Yes, the drive is going to be just short of 8 hours, covering 488 miles at a pace of 62.8mph, which isn’t terribly fast, but accounts for sluggish traffic, especially in and around the Nation’s Capitol.

 

DAY ONE

Hurricane Maria, if you haven’t forgotten about her, continues to linger just off the east coast, and will be moving towards the Outer Banks as a Category 2 storm. Still strong, but not the monster that has devastated Puerto Rico,and she is expected to turn away from the coast before really doing any damage inland, though surf will be up on the beaches. For our route, though? From northwest Ohio to Baltimore? Nothing. Maria will help a very strong ridge in the east scour the atmosphere, and will allow us to drive through the Appalachians, perhaps without seeing a single cloud until we get to the Charm City.

Road Trip

Dothan, Alabama to Orlando, Florida

The Southeastern portion of our great nation has been beaten and abused by the weather through the late summer. Fortunately, while Maria has ravaged the Caribbean for the second time this season, she has no designs on Florida, and the Sunshine State is opening back up for business. Why not a trip down to Disney World? This is going to be a short trip, covering only 358 miles and lasting just over 5 hours. We should be able to reach an average speed of 66.9mph, dspite he brief length of the trip.



Maria will be sliding through the Bahamas tomorrow, which will be quite dangerous for that nation, but is quite fortunate for Florida. Her easterly turn will be even better news for the East Coast this weekend. the northeasterly, counter-clockwise flow around Maria will be directed at our route, however. This won’t be a catastrophic wind, or torrential rain, but there will be a few isolated showers and storms over interior Florida, which we may bump into between Tallahassee and Orlando, but personally, I think the models are getting over eager with the rain threats. Orlando will not be perfect when we get there, but it won’t be bad either.

Road Trip

Wichita, Kansas to Kingston, New York

Today we embark on a 1,448-mile road trip from the heartland of the country into the scenic Northeast US. It’s starting to get to the point of year where leaves are changing a bit, will the weather cooperate with us so we can enjoy the scenery?

Aerial of the Downtown Skyline of Wichita, Kansas with the Arkansas River and the Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in the Foreground

DAY ONE

We head northeastward out of Wichita towards Kansas City under partly cloudy skies. An area of low pressure is intensifying out over the Central Plains in western Nebraska/Kansas, causing a stronger southerly flow to develop over the region. It’ll be a bit breezy as we make our way into Missouri, but winds should settle down a bit as we head past Columbia and into St. Louis. High pressure found over the Eastern Great Lakes extends its reach down into the OH and TN Valleys, so conditions over southern IL will be mostly pleasant and make for an easy end to the day in Effingham, IL.

DAY TWO

High pressure continue to stand stout over the Eastern Great Lakes, which should make for a fairly quiet weather day today. We’ll head east out of Effingham through Indianapolis to Columbus and northeastward until we finish the day in Youngstown, OH, barely a stone’s throw from the PA border.

DAY THREE

Once again, high pressure is found over the area to start the day, but will break down some as the day progresses. Some scattered afternoon thunderstorms are expected to develop over Central PA, which could cause us to slow down a bit as we head eastward on I-80 through much of PA. Some lingering activity could still be found around Scranton by the late-afternoon hours, but activity should trail off the further east we push, and a somewhat quiet end to the trip is expected as we wind our way into Kingston, NY.

Road Trip

Jonesboro, Arkansas to Gulfport, Mississippi

Let’s take a quick little jaunt southeast towards the Gulf Coast. Fortunately, it looks like we are safe from the specter of tropical storms for a while, at least, after a very rough stretch. Our drive will only be about 7 hours, covering 436 miles, and all of it will be on interstate, mostly through Mississippi. Memphis might slow us down, but traffic isn’t that bad in Mississippi. Maybe speed limits are lower, because out average pace will be 63.5mph.

 

The weather doesn’t actually get taken into consideration for our pace forecasts in the intro here, but it certainly will slow down. As Irma fades, she will rock back to the west. Rain will be falling over eastern Arkansas and northern Mississippi in a steady, uninterrupted manner. We’ll need the wipers at least until Jackson, but potentially, there may be a stray shower all the way to Hattiesburg. The nature of tropical systems is that the wet weather will dry out very quickly, so Gulfport may have some high surf, but it will be sunny and warm when reach the coast.

Road Trip

Austin, Texas to Ann Arbor, Michigan

Let’s take a nice little road trip this Labor Day weekend, as we head north from Texas off to Lower Michigan. Thanks to a rapid drive up I-35, and continued travel along the interstate system, we will be able to cover 70 miles an hour, 563 miles a day, and will cover this 1368 mile drive in only 2 1/2 days. Let’s see if the weather cooperates with our ambitious pace.

DAY ONE (Monday)

Thankfully, as we start our trek out of Austin and through Texas will be dry and warm. This is a part of the country that has been through far too much, so clear skies and hopefully clear roads will be greatly appreciated. We will arrive in Arkansas with a warm, moist flow rising out of the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a weak cold front moving out of the Midwest. The day will end after we pass Little Rock, continuing another hour to Fredonia, on the way to Memphis.

DAY TWO (Tuesday)
Immediately as we get going from Fredonia, we will encounter some rain, with isolated embedded thunderstorms as we make our way through northeastern Arkansas. The boundary will be well defined with a good deal of cold air driving south from the Midwest, so, while we will have some heavy rain and thunderstorm early on in the day, the majority of our drive will be nice and clear. With the cooler air, having rolled down windows will be nice. There might be a bit of a headwind that could impact gas mileage, depending on the profile of your vehicle. We can make it to Monee, on the south side of the Chicago metro before we have to call it a day.

DAY THREE (Wednesday)
The low pressure center associated with the cold front we encounter Tuesday morning will be rotating through the Great Lakes. This cool low will tap into the moisture of the Lakes, and there will be pop up showers throughout Lower Michigan all day on Wednesday. Mostly cloudy skies and an autumnal chill await in Ann Arbor, along with those light showers.

Road Trip

Savannah, Georgia to Santa Cruz, California

We continue to monitor the situation in the western Gulf, which is expanding in scope from the Houston area to southern Louisiana, but this lengthy trip should give us a good cross section of the weather elsewhere in the country. Our trip will take 5 days to cover 2685 miles. As a special treat, this will take exactly 5 days to cover, meaning the math is pretty easy to figure out. We’ll go 67.125 miles a day and covering 537 mile a day.

 

DAY ONE (Wednesday)

Harvey is finally, mercifully on the move, and will really begin to break down as he moves into the Lower Mississippi Valley. As he becomes unravelled, the heavy rain will spread in their coverage, spilling into Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Showers and thunderstorms, including some isolated tornadoes, will become increasingly possible as we head west through the day, with rain becoming quite heavy west of Birmingham. Amid the deluge, we will stop between Tupelo and Memphis in the town of New Albany, Mississippi. They might see a couple inches of rain, but it still won’t compare to the Texas coast.

DAY TWO (Thursday)
Harvey will move up the Mississippi River towards Memphis, and we will be within the heavy rain, and make our nearest pass to the center of circulation as we head through Memphis. Fortunately, by this point, Harvey’s breadth will be reduced, and we should drive out of the rain somewhere around Little Rock. High pressure is what is forcing Harvey along, and will be the culprit for our much calmer afternoon. We’ll stop on the east side of Oklahoma City, with sunny skies and hot weather in our immediate future.

DAY THREE (Friday)
Friday will also be mercifully dry, but afternoons will be getting even warmer. The monsoon is getting organized out west, especially with Harvey clearing the moisture pipeline and allowing the wet weather in. Some isolated storms will pop up in the 4 corners, but it will be over the higher terrain of northern New Mexico, rather than the dusty east part leading up to Albuquerque. It will be just us and the road as we arrive in Albuquerque for the night.

DAY FOUR (Saturday)
We’ll be headed into the hottest part of the country, if not the world on Saturday, in the midst of another west coast heat wave. We’re going to move through the relatively cool northern Arizona and bake by the time we hit the Colorado River along the border with California, calling it a night in Needles, which isn’t far from the border. One more day to drive!

DAY FIVE (Sunday)
Sunny California. We’ll see most of it, from the deserts of southeastern California through the lush central Valley and then the undulating and beautiful Monterey Bay. We won’t see many clouds until we get right up on the coast, where there might be a hint of a marine layer as we arrive in Santa Cruz.

Road Trip

Manchester, New Hampshire to San Jose, California

Ooh, this is going to be a long trip. The trip will cover 6 days on the calendar and 3165 miles on the map. Thanks to those transcontinental interstates that we will make use of, we will be able to maintain a speed of 67.3mph, which means the first 5 days will cover 538 miles per day. The final day will be a hair shorter, but by that point, I think we will just happy to be in San Jose.

DAY ONE (Wednesday)

Well, Gert is still going strong out in the Gulfstream, and indirectly, she will make our first day on the road a good one. High pressure with clear skies is going to move into the region, allowing us an easy drive through Massachusetts and Upstate New York. We’ll make it to the western part of the state and the town of Wesfield along the shores of Lake Erie, and just north of the Pennsylvania border.

DAY TWO (Thursday)
After a good day of driving on Wednesday, we will encounter our first real system, as an upper level low charges in from the Upper Midwest into the Great Lakes. It’s not going to be one of those systems that has a ton of severe weather, especially as we first encounter it around Ashtabula, Ohio, but we might see some heavy rain and thunder nevertheless. The cold front is moving fairly quickly as these early autumn (I know, not yet) features can. We’ll get one last dose of rain around Chicago, and then cover the remainder of northern Illinois and make it all the way to Peru in the central part of the state before we call it a night.

DAY THREE (Friday)
It will be a bit cloudy as the low in the Great Lakes will slow down and churn up the atmosphere in its wake. An inverted trough angled from the Upper Midwest towards Iowa, a state that we will spend a great portion of our Friday. There may be a touch of precipitation between Des Moines and Omaha, but it will be very hit or miss. We’ll likely collect a drop or two, if my road tripping history tells me anything, but not enough to slow us down on the arrow straight I-80. We will make it into Nebraska, past Omaha and Grand Island, all the way to Wood River, where we will stop for the night.

DAY FOUR (Saturday)
Like I said, that weak little low seems to be the only issue we will encounter on our drive this week. A nice fat ridge will be setting up by the weekend over the Rockies and High Plains. Unless there are some microscale wind gusts in the valleys of Central Wyoming. We’ll make it to Red Desert, which is a small spot between Rawlins and Rock Springs.

DAY FIVE (Sunday)
There is rarely anything to chat about when we get from Wyoming to the Great Basin, both because the weather is pretty static, and because there aren’t many benchmarks on the map to reference if there is anything going on. By Sunday, that upper level ridge will be shifting to the east, allowing some monsoonal flow to start spilling back to the north, but any precipitation will be at the very peaks of the tallest mountains of the Wasatch. While we likely won’t see precipitation from these storms, don’t be surprised if there is a little bit of wind rushing down the mountains. We’ll stop in Battle Mountain in northern Nevada, which isn’t really a mountain, but a flat bit of land near a mountain.

DAY SIX (Monday)
More moisture will be spilling into the Great Basin as the ridge continues its departure. It will be late in the day before the wet weather shifts east to encounter the Sierras between Reno and Sacramento, and it seems very likely that we will get through the area before any real wet weather sets itself up. The heat wave has dissipated out west, so expect a comfortable drive through California to the Silicone Valley, finally culminating this enormous road trip.

Road Trip

Minneapolis, Minnesota to Gulfport, Mississippi

Today we embark on a long 2-day road trip from Minneapolis to the Gulf Coast. It’s nearly 1200 miles, so we have 2 full days ahead of us. Will the weather make it feel even longer? Let’s take a look!

DAY ONE

High pressure sitting over the Great Lakes is keeping the area dry this morning, but there’s some areas of fog expected to last into the mid-morning hours thanks to the increased humidity. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem as we head southward into Iowa. Mostly sunny skies are expected as we push through Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and eventually into Eastern Missouri. Our quiet day will end in the southern outskirts of St. Louis.

DAY TWO

As low pressure continues to push out into the Plains, some spotty activity is expected to develop out ahead of it over the MS River Valley, with some isolated showers possible as we continue into southeast MO on I-55. We’re going to be following this interstate for most of the day, so directions will be fairly easy to follow as we sneak into northeast AR and eventually by Memphis. Some widely scattered thunderstorms are possible from Memphis and continues southward to Jackson, where we veer onto I-49 which will take us the rest of the way. We could run into a couple of stronger afternoon/evening thunderstorms as we push through MS, but most of the activity by this point should already be dissipating and dry weather is expected for the rest of the ride into Gulfport!