TN/NC mountain weather

[cmoulder]

I'm hiking in this area soon and want to confirm that the mountain-forecast.com predictions are fairly accurate.

For those of you who hike there, do these mountain peak temperatures jive with your experience? (This is for Gregory Bald.)
mountain weather gregory bald.jpg

[Ashepabst]

i was gonna say those high temps seem low for August, but if it's rainy/cloudy the whole time it mightn't get out of the 60s.

the Sheep Pen Gap campsite is relatively high elevation, but does have some protection with Parsons Bald to the west.

[MuddyWaters]

Not always
Last fall I went out for a week in northern Va in late october to see leaves turn. Forecast was 75 day, 40-55 at night. U bet it never got under 65 i didnt need covers , and 90+ in day.

You just never know

[cmoulder]

OK, but this is around 5-6k feet... it is interesting to me that the day and night temps are almost identical.

[Tennessee Viking]

raysweather will usually give you a better estimate of weather along the TN/NC stateline.

[HooKooDooKu]

It's not unusual for day/night temperatures to not vary much at upper elevations in the Smokies. Recently camped at LeConte Shelter where the temperature didn't change by more than about 2º between when I arrived about 3pm and when I left the next morning around 7am.

Note that there's lots of cloud cover. That sort of acts like a blanket and keeps temperatures a little warmer than it would be on a clear night.

[HooKooDooKu]

...Sheep Pen Gap campsite is relatively high elevation, but does have some protection with Parsons Bald to the west.

It's also a very windy campsite. Because it's nestled between Gregory Bald and Parsons Bald, any wind blowing across the mountains gets a little amplified at that campsite. Not saying you'll get blown away, but it is quite common for winds to simply be a constant 10mph blowing through that area.

BTW, Sheep Pen Gap is my favorite campsite in all of GSMNP.

[Bmelee]

I use that forecast site all the time for hiking in the Smokies. Any forecast can be wrong, but at one has been uncannily accurate for me. Trying to find the nearest peak and a comparable elevation can sometimes be tricky, but for the AT, and Leconte it has been spot on every time I have used it.

[Rain Man]

The one I rely on--

https://www.outragegis.com/weather/grsm/

[cmoulder]

The one I rely on--

https://www.outragegis.com/weather/grsm/

Thanks! That high country forecast is nifty.