Category Archives: Road Trip

Road Trip

Brunswick, Georgia to Panama City, Florida

Leave a comment

We’re going to take a road trip, but we’ll make sure it’s brief today, as we head from the Atlantic coast of southeast Georgia to the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle. The cities of Brunswick are separated by 332 miles and a little over 5 hours. A big chunk of the day will be slowed by travelling through Jacksonville, but we will still maintain a pace of 64.9mph. We are spending quite a bit of time in north Florida, so I hope you like it.



There isn’t much organization in the southeastern US, but with low pressure continuing to ebb and fade in the northeast, sea breezes will continue to collide with slightly drierair inland, and produce some scattered showers and thunderstorms. Rain won’t be widespread, by any means, but don’t be surprised by a few scattered showers here and there as we pass through north Florida. The best area for convergence is always around Lake City, so if you want to make bets or something, bet on seeing a shower there. Also, if you want to make bets, you have a gambling problem. The threat for rain will still be present in Panama City, but it should be more sun than rain.

Road Trip

Terre Haute, Indiana to New Orleans, Louisiana

If you stuck around after our initial forecast, you will know that the weather in New Orleans for the next day and a half of this drive will be in excellent shape, but what about the 783 miles in between? We’ll cover that mileage at a pace of 68.5,mph, at which pace we will cover 548 miles on Thursday’s drive.

 
DAY ONE (Thursday)

Indeed, warm weather and sunny skies have come to the Mississippi Valley after a long stretch of busy weather in the area. Don’t be surprised to see a lot of people just outside and enjoying it at any stop that is made. Maybe have lunch by the river in Memphis. It’s going to be nice day, is what I’m saying. We’ll make it to Mississippi and the town of Richland, which is about 75 miles northeast of Jackson.

DAY TWO (Friday)
Like I said in the intro, New Orleans is going to be very nice to drive through. So too, will Jackson and all parts in between. It will even be tolerably cool. Not quite to the dog days yet, but they are coming soon.

Road Trip

Gainesville, Florida to Napa, California

One of the first road trips we ever took on Victoria-Weather many, many moons ago, was from Gainesville to Chico, California. This won’t be terribly different in terms of route or distance, but I should hope almost 10 years later, that the trip itself will be a little different. It will take us 5 complete days, covering 2731 miles, at a pace of 68mph to reach Napa. We will cover 546 miles a day in our efforts to cross the country.

DAY ONE (Thursday)

Boy, is the forecast map looking more and more like summer, expecially in the southern United States. The NAM and GFS are looking at sea breeze thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast with varying degrees if intensity. With these small scale events, the NAM’s precision often makes it the better model. If that is indeed the case on Thursday, watch out for strong thunderstorms with heavy rain, particularly over southern Alabama as we navigate our way north towards Hattiesburg. We will see more isolated thundershowers in Mississippi as the day winds down, and the stop for the night will come in Magee, about 50 minutes southeast of Jackson.

DAY TWO (Friday)
A little vort max is expected to develop around the Mississippi Delta by the afternoon, so the threat for organized thunderstorms along our route will be fairly low. Still, with latent moisture still high, and heat in the afternoon, don’t be surprised to see a smattering of showers over northern Louisiana and Texas as the heat of the afternoon sets in. We’ll dodge rain drops most of the day, which is fine, because we will need to keep the windows rolled up and the AC on the whole day. We’ll stop for the night in Bellevue, Texas, which is about 45 minutes southeast of Wichita Falls.

DAY THREE (Saturday)
The drive through north Texas and northern New Mexico will be fairly active. Most of the region will be under the influence of a broad, weak area of circulation, with a smattering of showers early in the day, with thunderstorms filtering in later. The rain will back into New Mexico as the day progresses, with thunderstorms butting up against the higher terrain that makes up the spine of the Land of Enchantment. We will almost definitely get a bit of precipitation, but it certainly won’t be a washout. The day will end on the west side of Alburquerque.

DAY FOUR (Sunday)
Showers and thunderstorms are going to be a thing of the past, especially as we cross northern Arizona. There might be a few isolated spots of rain in New Mexico, but that activity will wait to develop until after we have left the state. Northern Arizona will provide us with no problems, and the only issue we will have in southern California will be finding a place to stay. Incredible that the coast can be so populous, and inland, it’s so empty. Let’s say around the Camino Airstrip by Bigelw Cholla National Wilderness, we will stop for our final evening.

DAY FIVE (Monday)
High pressure! Ridging! Driving through California will be a piece of cake! Except for any traffic through the bigger towns of the central Valley, of course, but traffic through inland towns is so much easier to manage. The day will end in Napa, with sun and a glass of wine.

Road Trip

Gulfport, Mississippi to Macon, Georgia

Only a one-day trip today, from the Gulf Coast to Central Georgia. Will the Southeast be quiet as we make our way to the Peach State for a weekend getaway? Let’s see!

High pressure is found throughout the Southeast today, and should be a fog-free morning as we head out of Gulfport towards Mobile, AL. No afternoon showers and storms are expected along the route, so it should be a quiet and sun-filled day for the entire route! Easy peasy!

Road Trip

Lawton, Oklahoma to Tucson, Arizona

That was fun, let’s do it again! This time, the trip will route out of Lawton and head towards Arizona. This is a lonely drive, but at least it will only last a day and a half. Lawton and Tucson are only 867 miles apart, which we will cover at a pace of 63.1mph. This is what happens when there isn’t a major freeway between a couple towns. We’ll call it a night after the standard 8 hours of driving, which in this case will equate to 505 hours of driving. This should be less rainy than this afternoon’s drive, that’s for sure.

DAY ONE (Sunday)

There is a pool of cool air settling into the Plains behind the current cold front running west of the Appalachians, and it will keep the drive mostly dry on Sunday. Later in the day, there is some suggestion that a dry line will set up through west Texas, but I don’t think it is unstable enough that the thunderstorms will be terribly widespread, and the turning in the lower levels of the atmosphere will cause some rganization around the Big Bend. Long story short, as we drive between Lubbock and Amarillo, on towards Clovis, we will stay dry. It will continue to be dusty and dry in Tularosa, New Mexico, which is just north of Alamogordo.

DAY TWO (Monday)
After the little feature in southern Texas organizes a bit, it will shift into the Mississippi Valley and pull away any area moisture along with it, leaving our drive to be exactly what we would expect a drive through southern New Mexico annd Arizona to be like. Dry, sunny, pretty warm. Oh, and terribly empty. We won’t see much in the way of life between Alamogordo annd Tucson, so enjoy it when we get there.

Road Trip

Lakeland, Florida to Lawton, Oklahoma

We’re finally going on a road trip together for the first time in a while. You’ve been out and about with Anthony, but it’s my time to take you on a two day trek, this from central Florida to southwest Oklahoma. The drive will take us two days and cover 1284 miles, slicing through the southeastern US. It will be warm, certainly, and that second nearly 11 hour drive will be fairly grueling, but we will be moving at a pace of 68mph, and will cover 544 miles on our first day, leaving the rest of the meat on the bone for Monday. We should get on the road and beat the heat.

DAY ONE (Sunday)

Despite an embedded vorticity maximum within a stalled cold front over the Lower Mississippi Valley, we will be in good shape as we begin our day Sunday. The Florida Peninsula will be in great shape, and we will be in the Peninsula for the first several hours of our day. In the Panhandle, isolated thunderstorms will begin to crop up, starting around Lake City, but certainly by the time we reach Tallahassee, we will have seen at least a bit of rain. Scattered showers with embedded thunderstorms, appearing more like sea breeze storms than frontal activity. We will encounter stronger, synoptic scale showers and storms not long after we Panama City, and there is a threat for some gusty winds and stronger thunderstorms all the way to Lucedale, Mississippi, just north of Gulfport, northwest of Mobile.

DAY TWO (Monday)
Another lower level eddy will be getting kicked up Sunday night over south Texas, and will be bringing some moisture inland early in the morning on Monday. There will be some rain in Lucedale as we depart, but as we drive north towards Jackson, it will clear out. The warm weather will give rise to increasing thunderstorm activity, which we will battle from Monroe, Louisiana to Longview, Texas. Much more manageable activity will continue through Dallas, but traffic will undoubtedly slow us down. Another thunderstorm may crop up in the last hour or so from Wichita Falls to Lawton, but if we don’t, we will leave the stratus behind and only see sun between the showers.

Road Trip

Poughkeepsie, New York to Shreveport, Louisiana

Yet another road trip! What does this family have against flying places?! At least this isn’t a cross-country trip, but will still take 3 days to navigate from southeastern NY to northern LA. Hopefully we avoid the snow this time!

DAY ONE

Partly cloudy skies greet us this morning as high pressure sits off the New England coastline. Warm temperatures will greet the Northeast as upper 70s and maybe even some low 80s are possible as we cruise through northern NJ and into eastern PA. We’ll probably see some more clouds in the evening as we push into northern VA as a frontal boundary pushes closer to our route, but it should be a dry day as we finish in Harrisonburg, VA.

DAY TWO

The boundary that was pushing through the Appalachians overnight pretty much washes out by morning, with a lingering bit of it found over the Mid-Atlantic. A bit cooler temps will greet the region, but the conditions should be dry as we head southwestward through VA into eastern TN. Overall, another fairly good day!

DAY THREE

It’s going to be a long day of driving, but with high pressure controlling much of the Deep South and Gulf Coast, we shouldn’t have any real problems driving! Might be some patchy fog as we head out of Chattannooga towards Birmingham, but should burn off fairly quickly. We’ll continue along I-20 through Tuscaloosa and through Mississippi before pushing into northern Louisiana late in the evening. It’ll be late but eventually we finally arrive worry-free into Shreveport!

Road Trip

Iowa City, Iowa to Phoenix, Arizona

Two road trips in one day today. This one will see us take a southwesterly voyage, where as the other, later tonight, well, that will be southwesterly as well. Our drive will cover 1514 miles and will last for nearly 3 complete days. At this pace, our average speed will be 64.6mph. The third day will be slightly shorter, but in general, we will cover about 516.5 miles per full day of travel. It’s snowing in Minnesota today, so a trip down to Phoenix from nearby Iowa City certainly doesn’t sound so bad right now.

DAY ONE (Tuesday)

A cold front is moving through the Mississippi Valley as we speak tonight. Flow aloft in support of the trough and behind it is fairly weak, and broadly ridging behind the initial front. What does this mean to the average traveler? It means sunny skies and light winds. We’ll make it through the most well populated part of our drive, and end up in Goddard, Kansas, just west of Wchita.

DAY TWO (Wednesday)
Westerly flow and the mid-April time of year means we are in prime time for lee troughing and dry lines. Weak low pressure will indeed develop in eastern Colorado, with a dry line dangled south along the Texas/New Mexico border. We may see some storms touched off from Guymon, Oklahoma to Tucamcari, New Mexico, meaning that the Texas Panhandle will be a ripe environment for a few showers and thunderstorms. On either side of this area of thundertorms, we will be in pretty good shape. We won’t see a soul for miles at a time, but the weather will be most agreeable. The day will end in Clines Corners, New Mexico, which we will reach about an hour ahead of Alburquerque.

DAY THREE (Thursday)
Hot high pressure is sliding into the intermountain west, and will be in place by Thursday. It’s not a huge stretch that Arizona and New Mexico are dry and warm, but the set up is more reassurance that we are out of the woods in terms of thunderstorms. Phoenix will be warm and dry upon our arrival, which is pretty much what one looks forward to when they go to Phoenix.

Road Trip

Olympia, Washington to New York, New York

Well we just did a cross country road trip, so why not do another one? This family is a glutton for punishment. Today, we embark on a 2800+ mile road trip from the capital of Washington to The City That Never Sleeps. It’s going to take a full 6 days to make the trip, so here we go!

DAY ONE

Today starts our intimate trip of I-90 as we’ll be spending plenty of time getting to know it on this trip. A trough is continuing to push through the Pacific Northwest and into the Northern Rockies this weekend, kicking up widespread rain showers from Olympia through the Cascades. They’ll taper off a bit as we push through Central WA, but as we start to head through the tiny bit of Northern Idaho and eventually into western MT, we can expect some snow showers to greet us thanks to the elevation change. It will probably be some slow going for the evening as we end our night in Missoula, Mt.

DAY TWO

Today isn’t going to be much better than the end of Day 1 as the storm system starts to slowly push out into the Plains. However, the snow focused along the inverted trough will keep snow over a decent chunk of our trip today. Billings looks at getting a few inches throughout the day, which is where we’ll have to drive through as we eventually make our way to Wyoming. We’re only making it to Sheridan tonight, darn snow!

DAY THREE

Today will be a long day as we try and make up some time, but we’ll still be somewhat vexed by the storm system we’re “chasing” it seems. The early part of the drive through northwest WY should be cloudy but otherwise fairly quiet, and looks to stay that way until we pass by Rapid City, SD. As we continue eastward on I-90 through the state, we could see some more rain/snow showers by the time we make it to central SD. Luckily any activity should be fairly light and spotty, and eventually we make our way into Sioux Falls, SD for the night.

DAY FOUR

Finally we’ve escaped that storm system! It kinda fizzled out as it pushed into the Great Lakes overnight as high pressure built in behind it over the Upper Midwest. That bodes well for us as today’s trip through Southern MN and southern WI should be fairly uneventful. We end the night in Rockford, IL, only 30someodd miles from my hometown!

DAY FIVE

High pressure will continue to sit over the Great Lakes region throughout the day, so other than some morning clouds, another dry day is in store for us. We’ll traverse our way through Chicago and northern Indiana before negotiating some road construction in Northern Ohio. We’ll end our day in Youngstown, OH, only 1 day to go!

DAY SIX

High pressure still controls the Northeast although a weak boundary is kicking up some showers over NY and southern MI. Luckily, our route through PA and northern NJ will avoid any of those precipitation hiccups. Partly to mostly cloudy skies are expected, but should be smooth sailing weather-wise into NYC for the evening!

Road Trip

Altoona, Pennsylvania to Eugene, Oregon

I’m back everybody! I spent a fortnight over in Ireland, which was my first ever trip across the pond. The weather was stereotypically Irish the first half of the trip, but the last 4-5 days were just SPECTACULAR. Lots of sun, few clouds, no rain, upper 50’s to low 60s. Gorgeous weather for my tour across the country. Meanwhile, back here in the states, I get back into the swing of things with a cross-country road trip, from PA to Oregon. In Ireland, it literally was a 2.5 hour drive to drive across the country. This trip… is going to take 5 full days to traverse the 2,674 miles. Ireland is the size of South Carolina! Well, time to get a move on…

DAY ONE

We start out heading west from Altoona past Pittsburgh into northeastern Ohio. A cloudy morning is expected before breaking up some during the late morning hours. Dry weather is expected as we continue past Cleveland and along I-90 into northern Indiana. By early afternoon, we’ll see some shower activity as an area of low pressure works its way into the Ohio Valley. We could see some isolated thunderstorm activity as well, but the worst of things will remain far off to the south. Shower activity is expected to increase as we push into Joliet, IL for the night.

DAY TWO

There could be a light rain/snow mix as we start the day heading westward, but we’ll quickly get out of that activity as high pressure is sitting over the Plains. Clouds will eventually give way to sunny skies as we make our way through Iowa, and with the dry weather expected throughout the day, a fairly easy day is expected as we pull into Lincoln, NE for the night.

DAY THREE

It’s going to be more of the same today as a ridge of high pressure continues to control the Plains for our trip westward into Wyoming. A developing low pressure system over the Northern Plains will cause some gusty southerly winds in western Nebraska into eastern Wyoming, but dry weather is expected throughout the day once again. We end our long day in Rawlins, WY.

DAY FOUR

A cold front is sweeping its way through the Rockies today, which will bring some rain showers to our route as we make our way through southwestern WY into Northern UT. The system will be warm enough that we shouldn’t have to worry about snowfall on the highways, though there could be some in the much higher mountain elevations. Once we get past Salt Lake City/Odgen, UT, most of the activity should have shifted off to our east. We can’t completely rule out a stray shower or two as we push into southern ID, but shouldn’t be of much consequence. We finish the day in Twin Falls, ID. Almost there!

DAY FIVE

Our final day, and it’s going to be a long one. We’ll take I-84 northwest towards Boise, then eventually on Hwy 20 westward throughout Oregon. High pressure is pushing through the Pacific Northwest, so it should be a dry trip through Idaho and into eastern Oregon. Clouds will be on the increase as we push closer to our final stop, as a cold front looks to shift towards the WA/OR coastline late in the day. We should get to Eugene just ahead of the front’s arrival, but don’t be surprised if a few rain showers are there to greet us.