The Weather Blog » Road Trip

Midland, Texas to Killeen, Texas

Ryan — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:03:27 +0000

Texas is a big state. This is how a trip that stays in state can last over 5 hours. Expect a slow drive (56.7mph on average), as we'll need to take quite a few state highways and county roads as we cover the 296 miles between the two cities.

Most of Texas will be in great shape tomorrow, and Midland and Killeen are no exceptions. An area of low pressure off the Mexican coast will prevent any moisture from filtering past the Texas coast, while the recent influx of cooler air will keep temperature more manageable than they have been all summer. It should be a happy drive to Killeen.

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Rapid City, South Dakota to Laredo, Texas

Ryan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:49:04 +0000

We're taking a road trip, well aware of the the hurricane out east. It's probably a good idea that we're making the trip through the high plains, then, from Rapid City to far southern Texas. It will be a 1388 mile journey that will take almost three days, thanks to a lot of time spent off the interstates. In fact, almost none of the drive will be on an interstate and all of it will be through corn or wheat fields. Our off freeway driving will mean we will drive at a rate of 62.6mph, and will cover a paltry 500.6 miles a day. It's beautiful in it's stark emptiness out there. You have to believe me.

DAY ONE

Another deep trough in the Northern Plains is spinning up trouble tonight for the Dakotas and High Plains. We won't entirely wait it out by the time we are ready to leave tomorrow morning, and there is a chance for some showers and isolated thunderstorms over southwestern South Dakota that will linger as we leave Rapid City. Expect some showers to remain with us as we slide into Nebraska and to remain an issue as far south as Chadron (though the chance will go way down before we even reach Nebraska). Expect some breezy conditions and seasonably cool temperatures as we make our way into eastern Colorado and beautiful Wiley, between Kit Carson and Lamar.

DAY TWO
Our drive on Friday will actually take us through some real cities, like Amarillo and Lubbock as we make our way into western Texas. It will continue to be a dry, easy driving day as we drive the high plains. We'll be on our way to Sterling City, which is between Big Spring and San Angelo, our destination for the night when we will see our first hint of clouds or rain.

DAY THREE
The cloudy, intermittently dreary weather will probably continue for most of southern Texas. It's a possibility that we will stay dry the whole drive, but we may see a little splash of rain, particularly around Del Rio and Eagle Pass. Just enough to force the windows closed in the hot stuffy weather. We'll arrive in Laredo with cloudy skies and hot temperatures surrounding us like a blanket.

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Springfield, IL to Lubbock, TX

Anthony — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:54:44 +0000

A 2-day, 940 mile trip through America's Heartland. Will we see sunny skies or a good old-natured Plains thunderstorm? How about we dabble in both?!

DAY ONE

A large ridge of high pressure has parked itself over the Great Lakes with some patchy morning fog found over Central Illinois. We'll make our way down I-55 towards St. Louis under sunny morning skies and relatively light winds. The high pressure ridge continues into the Southern Plains, so with the exception of a few high clouds later on in the afternoon, the day should be sunny and quiet. Sunglasses will be a must as we continue through Springfield, MO and make our way down I-44 to Tulsa, OK, our stop for the night.

DAY TWO

We head out of Tulsa towards Oklahoma City, with significantly more clouds than we started off yesterday with. A cold front pushing its way through the Plains yesterday has pushed itself further south as well during the overnight. Showers and thunderstorms that continued through the night over CO and KS have pushed ahead of the front into portions of northwestern OK by morning. Overcast skies will take over by midday and we can expect some scattered showers and thunderstorms to wet the windshields as we make our way south out of Lawton, OK and towards Wichita Falls, TX. Chances for showers and storms will remain through the rest of the day into Lubbock, but luckily are not expected to be severe.

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Ames, Iowa to Anniston, Alabama

Ryan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:55:56 +0000

It's an alliterative road trip to take us to the end of the week from soggy Ames to humid Anniston. We'll take almost 2 full days to cover the 922 miles that we we want to cover. The route will allow us to cover 63mph, and about 506 miles on the first day. It's going to be damp at beginning and end. How about the middle?

DAY ONE

The only issue we should have on our first day will be leaving Ames. With the recent flooding the town has seen there is a possibility that some roads could still be underwater, making travel a bit sticky as we try to get out of town. The route will take us along a lot of Iowa state highways, which will introduce us to quite a few fun small towns before we are ultimately surprised to come across Saint Louis. The day will end without incident in Goreville, Illinois in the far southern part of the state.

DAY TWO
For the most part, the second day of driving, Friday won't be too bad either. Sure, when we cross into Alabama, we could start seeing some thunderstorms, but that will only be the last hour or two of the entire drive, so we shouldn't complain. Expect some thunderstorms in and around Anniston upon arrival.

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Grand Forks, North Dakota to Ames Iowa

Ryan — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:34:05 +0000

Today's trip will cover exactly 8 hours. Right on the nose. How about that. It's a 528 mile journey, so if you do the math, that means we'll average about 66mph, thanks to driving that will exclusively cover interstates. Let's just hope that Ames isn't underwater when we arrive. For once, Grand Forks isn't.

The trip will get off to a somewhat rocky start with a cold front sweeping into northern Minnesota. Overnight, there could be a little bit of severe weather in eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota. The boundary isn't moving terribly quickly, and we'll be able to sink south of and shower or thunderstorm activity tomorrow after we have reached the Alexandria, Minnesota area. Since it's still early in the morning, I don't think we're going to be in for any huge thunderstorms, just some nagging rain and thunder. South of the front, everything looks good. Look for the typically clear and warmer weather ahead of a front, which will envelope us all the way into Ames.

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Morgantown, West Virginia to Amarillo, Texas

Ryan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:09:33 +0000

Today we embark on a 1,378 mile road trip from Morgantown, WV to Amarillo, TX. We'll be taking it easy though, making the trip in three days at a fairly comfortable pace in covering roughly 460 miles a day. And away we go!

DAY ONE

We head out of Morgantown northwards towards Pittsburgh, but we'll make a west on I-70 before we reach the metropolis. A cold front pushing through the region will fire most of its activity off towards the east during the afternoon hours. There is a slight chance of a lingering shower along it during the morning hours as we continue westward, but things will dry and clear out as we continue our way westward into OH. Good weather should greet us for the rest of the day as we push into Indiana, finishing up at Terre-Haute, which is near the IL border.

DAY TWO

Weak high pressure over the area will make for a fairly nice morning with some patchy light fog perhaps breaking up shortly after sunrise. We continue our jaunt down I-70 towards St. Louis. The cold front that moved through the region the previous day will keep the main concentration of shower and storm activity off towards the south over the TN and Lower MS Valleys. A weak disturbance along the tail end of a boundary lifting back over the Central Plains will sprout scattered shower and thunderstorm activity over much of the Plains states. We'll be pulling into Joplin, MO, found near the KS/OK border by the late-afternoon hours while the skies cloud up. Some showers and thunderstorms are possible late evening into the overnight hours, hopefully they don't keep us awake. We only have one more day to go!

DAY THREE

A few straggling showers are possible over the Ozarks during the morning hours as the disturbance shifts northeast and dissipates overnight. The tail end of the cold front continues to camp out over the TN and Lower MS Valleys, keeping the diurnal thunderstorm activity south of our route. Models have been spinning up an area of low pressure along the Gulf Coast and by Wednesday, it could possibly develop into a tropical system as it shifts westward towards LA and far eastern TX. This focus of moisture southeast of our route will keep precip activity fairly isolated as we make our way past Tulsa and Oklahoma City and onto I-40 towards the TX Panhandle. Most of the afternoon and evening activity will be found over the Four Corners region as monsoonal thunderstorms ignite once again over the Rockies. A couple stray thunderstorms might find their way down towards Amarillo by early evening, but we should beat them to the city.

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Springfield, Missouri to Jackson, Mississippi

Ryan — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:22:11 +0000

It's another delightfully brief road trip that will take us through the Lower Mississippi Valley on Friday. It will take roughly 8 hours to get from southwestern Missouri to western Mississippi, and will see about 494 miles tick off the odometer. If we're driving a hybrid, that's one tank of gas! We'll be making the drive at about 61mph, if you were curious.

It's just a nasty, unstable pattern for much of the country. There is heat and humidity everywhere, with weak little thermal troughs rippling through an indefinite pattern, touching off thunderstorms in a seemingly crazed, aimless pattern over almost all the country east of the Rockies. One such trough will continue to bring wet weather from southern Missouri to about Nashville. I suspect we will see a thunderstorm or two as we begin the drive, particularly until we reach the Arkansas border near West Plains. We should be drier but incredibly warm through Arkansas, with the rain from the tropical system in the Gulf potentially reaching as far north as Memphis, but we should be dry until we get to about the Kosciusko exit on I-55. It will probably be quite rainy in Jackson when we get to town.

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Greenville, South Carolina to Tallahassee, Florida

Ryan — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:01:19 +0000

Our Monday afternoon drive will be fairly enjoyable. It's only about 7 hours from Greenville to Tallahassee, covering 414 miles. That puts us on a pace of 59.7mph, thanks in large part to some country roads and a trip through the heart of Atlanta.

For a drive through the southeast in the dead of summer, this will be a fairly easy trip. A low off the Florida coast will pass over the Peninsula and draw almost all focus for thunderstorms south of our route. It's going to be so blasted hot and humid for the drive that there is that outside chance of a storm, but that likely won't come until after we have been on the road for a while. I would say we will be dry until we reach Macon, after which we will fend off some isolated showers until we hit the Florida border. No rain is expected in Tallahassee, but it will be incredibly warm.

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Fort Wayne, Indiana to Bismarck, North Dakota

Ryan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:20:48 +0000

I have lived in Lafayette, Indiana and Minot, North Dakota, but I have no record of either end point on our trip. That said, this two day, 994 mile trip will cover a lot of familiar ground for me. We'll travel at a rate of 61.9mph and we'll split the mileage nearly in half, going 495 miles on the first day.

DAY 1

This is road trippin' weather if you ask me. I'm used to the long drives with temperatures in the 90s, humid with either the windows down or the AC blasting. It's going to be hot through Chicago and parts of southern Wisconsin. Temperatures will begin to cool down with increasing clouds in the center of that state. By the time we reach Eau Claire, we may see some light showers or one of the isolated thunderstorms that will go up in northern Wisconsin, but we won't have much further to go. Menomonie will be the stop Monday night.

DAY TWO
The Tuesday trip may be a little long if we get a thunderstorm overnight in Menomonie, but we shouldn't have issues because of the weather. The drive through Minnesota will be down right enjoyable. It always seems unfair that you have to drive for about three more hours when you hit the North Dakota line to get to Bismarck, but such is life. It will be hot and dry in North Dakota's capital when we arrive.

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Naples, Florida to Kingston, New York

Ryan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:27:33 +0000

We're taking a trip from the Gulf Coast to the Hudson Valley between Albany and NYC. It's a 1388 mile journey, surprisingly long, if you ask me, and will take us nearly three full days of driving. The first two days will net us only 496 miles, primarily because of our glacial pace of 62mph. I guess grandpa is driving us back from his winter home.

DAY ONE

Part of the reason this drive is so long is that we are following almost the entire Florida Peninsula, which takes about 400 miles on its own. The extra 100 miles will take us to Savannah, Georgia, which is our destination on day one. Models are indicating that the seabreeze will be most active for Florida on the eastern side of the Peninsula tomorrow, which is great news for us, since our route takes us on the Gulf side. We will likely be just fine from Naples to about Ocala. Thunderstorms will be more problematic from then to Gainesville, and becoming more dispersed through Jacksonville and on to Savannah. Of course, this is summer in the southeast, so don't be surprised if a storm does crop up over that tail end of the trip. It happens.

DAY TWO.
A cold front is sweeping through the east tomorrow, and is often the case, the tail end will stall through the eastern Carolinas. The most widespread thunderstorm activity will be in South Carolina, which is good, because it isn't likely to be fully developed as we drive through. Still, the heaviest rain of the day will likely be between Lake Marion in South Carolina and the North Carolina border. After that, we should really dry out as we head through the rest of North Carolina and southern Virginia. Our day will finally end in Ladysmith, Virginia, which is between Richmond and Fredericksburg.

DAY THREE
The next little wave will be rolling into the east coast as we travel through the bustling megalopolis. We should stay dry, but there is a chance at some isolated drizzle and mostly cloudy skies virtually through the whole day. Don't let that deter you though, because the last hour and our arrival in Kingston will be quite lovely.

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