Battle Creek, Michigan to Charlotte, North Carolina
Posted by Ryan
Oooh, two towns that take three words to say. We will be taking a day and a half to make our way just east of the area ravaged yesterday by tornadoes. It's only 681 miles between the two cities, but we will move at the incremental rate of 59.6mph, which means we will only cover 477 miles of the trip on the first day. How will the drive treat us? Take a look below!
DAY ONE
A combination being both on the back end of the system that moved through yesterday, and a weak clipper moving through the Midwest, we will be in and out of flurries all day. The most evident streamer is between Fort Wayne and Columbus, and that is likely where we will see some steadier snow showers. That said, I would be hard pressed to say we will be snow free anywhere else along our day one route, which will end in Crab Orchard, West Virginia (near Beckley.)
DAY TWO
The snow will still be falling when we get up to leave on Monday, as the bundle of energy fueling the clipper will be moving through southern West Virginia at about departure time. The snow, and it will be snow, will be squeezed out by the mountains of the area, and by the time we get south of the Appalachians, near Wytheville, Virginia, we should be in pretty good shape for the drive into Charlotte.
Charlotte, North Carolina to Chico, California
Posted by Ryan
/emits low whistle. This is going to be a 5 day road trip, and will take up every second of those 5 days. It's 2716 miles between the two cities, and our average speed will be 66.2. Our first 4 days will cover 529 miles, and the 5th will be the remainder, which is a bit more than the first 4 days. There is a lot of ground to cover, so we had best be on our way.
DAY ONE
We will depart Charlotte with California in mind and sun in our eyes. Well, in the rearview, since we will be headed west. Whatever. The sun won't last us all the way through the mountains, though, because a clipper moving through Canada will swing a little bit of light rain towards the Smokeys. It will be a really quick shot of rain, along with some blustery winds between Knoxville and Nashville, after which point we will drive with sunny skies. The end destination for the first day in the car will be Reidland, Kentucky, which was a stop on yesterday's trip TO Charlotte.
DAY TWO
Day two, and it's high pressure all the way! Warmer air will even begin to build in as we hit western Missouri! Exclamation points! We will turn north from Kansas City towards I-80 before the day ends, and stop for the night in Country Club, Missouri, which is pretty much the north side of St. Joseph.
DAY THREE
More high pressure! Monday will be as easy as Sunday, and even perhaps more so as the largest city we encounter will be Lincoln, Nebraska as we make our westward turn. The day will end, after a whole lot of problem free Nebraska driving, in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, right along the state line with Nebraska.
DAY FOUR
Tuesday and not much will change. There is a bit of a system that will be working it's way through the Northern Rockies, but for our purposes, it will only bring precipitation to the peaks of Wyoming, and there aren't many in the middle of I-80. Still, we should be wary of the mountain passes. What often doesn't look like much in the models can sometimes be brutal in real life when we are talking about mountain driving. Barring a catastrophe in Wyoming, we will make it to Delle, Utah, on the southwest shore of Salt Lake City.
DAY FIVE
Hey, almost there! And not much in store for the 5th day either. There is a system over the Gulf of Alaska that will pump moisture into the Pacific Northwest, and may cause some high clouds to spill into Northern California, and even then, that won't be until the end of the day. Chico awaits!
Denver, Colorado to Charlotte, North Carolina
Posted by Ryan
We are destined for a nice three day road trip today, between two of America's larger cities, a feat that doesn't often happen. We also don't get to cut through the heart of Kansas very often, so I hope everyone can relish that. It's 1562 miles between the two cities, and we will cover that distance of a rate of 64.5mph. This pace will mean 516 miles a day, surely a manageable pace. Tally-ho!
DAY ONE
We are preparing for the next wave to come out of the Rockies, and it might be preparing to bring some snow to Denver as we prepare to depart Denver. After a warm day today, Denver will enjoy a return to winter that won't be able to chase us too far into the Plains. As we hit Limon, the precipitation will cut off, but I don't think we will see the sun we would typically expect from a rain shadow. The system bringing the snow to the Rockies will be moving into the Upper Midwest and begin to organize itself enough to start spitting out a few showers in Kansas. There is a very slight chance we see a bit of a rain-snow mix after passing through Salina, Kansas, and will fight the sloppiness as we pull into Paxico, Kansas, though again, it's not going to be very heavy precipitation.
DAY TWO
Missouri is a bit hillier than many people anticipate, so it would be a little unpleasant to have to drive through with inclement weather in the area. Fortunately, as we sleep, the fast moving system that plagued us on our Friday drive will clear out, allowing us to traverse the Show Me State in peace and quiet and sunshine. Really, life will be good, and it will be a Saturday, so traffic in Kansas City and St. Louis will be pretty decent. The day will end in Reidland, Kentucky, which is just outside Paducah on the shores of the Ohio River.
DAY THREE
A pivoting trough will swing south from the low now moving through Canada. I don't think it will have enough juice to really bring us any problems, aside, perhaps, from some fog in far eastern Tennessee as we begin to climb through the Smokey Mountains. That's how they got their name, after all, from the persistent fog at their peak. In any event, that fog will certainly lift by the time we arrive in Charlotte Sunday evening.