View Full Version : how much rain?
Does any one have good stats on how much rain thruhikers have had in the last five years? Or even an average? How many days for example did it rain on your thru hike? I never counted except for the month of april in 2000 in which I recieved 26 days in a row raining at least once per day. I realize that you might have only guesses but lets hear them please. :-?
Generally speaking, in the East, the historical records indicate an average of one rainy day out of three. 26 rainy days a month has got to be an extreme.
Chris Whalen's "Workbook for planning Thru-hikes" tabulated average monthly rainfall. It indicates about 3 to 5 inches of rain per month.
Maybe Weather Carrot can give us some better statistics.
hungryhowie
01-07-2004, 09:36
It's important to remember that 2000 was an El Nino year. This translates into much higher than average rainfall. I hiked in 2000 as well, and received over 100 days of rain including 30 continuous days in TN-VA. This past year was also extremely wet (from what I can tell by the latest crop's tales), but I don't think it was actually an El Nino year (they usually come in 10 year intervals...I think...).
-Howie
It's important to remember that 2000 was an El Nino year. This translates into much higher than average rainfall. I hiked in 2000 as well, and received over 100 days of rain including 30 continuous days in TN-VA. This past year was also extremely wet (from what I can tell by the latest crop's tales), but I don't think it was actually an El Nino year (they usually come in 10 year intervals...I think...).
-Howie
Read Adrienne Hall's book "A Journey North." It sounds like 1995 was a wet year also.
Weather goes in cycles. In 2001 I went from Gorham to Katahin with only one thunderstorm one night.
Spirit Walker
01-07-2004, 11:27
The statistic that I have heard is one day in three wet (rain/snow/sleet/dense fog). My reality on two hikes was about that, but it wasn't evenly spread out. You may have a month straight iof rain and snow n Georgia/NC/TN and then nothing for the rest of the trail, or a month of rain in New England, or several snow storms in the beginning and then just afternoon thundershowers or just night rains. This past year was excessively high - the year before was a drought year. You learn to live with whatever comes.
Remember that rainfall is much higher in the Appalachian Mountains than in other parts of AT states. General rainfall statistics for eastern states are very misleading. Much higher rainfall on the AT, especially down south. Some parts of the smokies get over 100 inches of rain a year.
Moon Monster
01-10-2004, 23:57
I counted on my 2003 hike. I had 78 days with actual precip (3 were snow) over 140 days on the trail. I had probably another 15-20 days that were completely overcast with no precip. (Of course, some of the rain days started in sun and turned to rain or vice versa, so I saw the sun on many more than just 40 days--probably like 60 days of seeing the sun.) I had two streaks of eight days straight of rain and a few others of 5 or 6 days. My longest streak of sun was eight days and there were only 20-30 days when the trailway was completely dry. On the other hand, only one stretch in NH had a low water table and I never wanted for good water anyplace else.