Weather and start date

[patrickburch]

My wife and I are from the UK and are going to start our northbound 2010 thru-hike at the end of February/ start of March as we need to finish before the end of July. What is the weather in Georgia like then? How cold does it get? Will there be snow on the path? Any advice would be welcome.

[neighbor dave]

warm in town, cold in the hills. yes there will be snow and cold rain

[neighbor dave]

look through the photos to get an idea
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/browseimages.php?c=508
also go to www.trailjournals.com (http://www.trailjournals.com)
and look through a.t. journals

[garlic08]

I started last year in early April and experienced wet snow in the day and temps in the low teens (F) at night. (I also had mostly wonderful warm sunshine.)

The only time snow obscured the path for me was in high country in the Smokies, but the way to hike was clear enough.

It seems many early season hikers often need to sit out some bad weather in town. With the shorter time you have planned, you won't really have that luxury. So you may need to be more prepared than others to handle a winter hike, with clothing, camping, and navigational skills.

[Pedaling Fool]

You'll be cold! But will also see some nice days, especially since hiking creates heat. However, I have had days where I just couldn't create enough heat, despite going uphill and then the downhill was just miserable. In short, be ready for cold.

This was near Springer Mt. in early April 2007, so you're pretty much guaranteed to see snow.
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=17901&c=member&orderby=title&direction=ASC&imageuser=6936&cutoffdate=-1

[traildust]

No way to tell. Could be the worst snow on record or no snow. This year, folks will tell you, it was the worst season for rain, rain, rain. Pack for all weather scenarios and you'll be find. Not much help there but it is the mountains and it is Georgia but still weather is never what you expect. Prepare for the unexpected.

[Blissful]

Prepare for cold and snow but you could also get a warm spell. It was 65F for us on March 6th.

[Cookerhiker]

You've gotten some good advice. I'll add what I hope you probably know already: being from the Uk where you have a much narrower temperature range, you will experience colder weather than you're used to in the beginning and much hotter weather in June & July. I remember a walking trip in the Cottswolds in July when the leader thought a high of 78 F was excessively hot. If you think this way, you'd best prepare yourself for steambath conditions!

That said, lots of UK hikers successfully thruhike so have a great hike!

[emerald]

A few journals or entries which convey the range of conditions possible and preferrably their links would go a long way toward answering this question. I don't know of any good examples mostly because I only rarely read journals.

Hope for the best while being prepared for the worst or at least monitor the weather, have a bail out plan and the means to wait for better conditions.

[patrickburch]

A lot of useful information to digest. It sounds like I'll need to carry more cold weather kit than I thought and be prepared for some down time in a town if the weather's too bad.