Temperature Inversion in the mtns today

[grouseking]

Wish I was out there hiking...these are some of my favorite hiking days, when the weather seems almost "backwards." Coolest air is in the valleys today, with warmest stuff on the hilltops, and higher up in the whites.

EX...right now its 40 at the bottom of the auto road, and 49 at 4000 feet. THen it finally cools off to 35 at the summit.

Anyone else experience interesting temperature swings in the mtns today? I bet it made for some nasty clumpy snow conditions.

 

[DSettahr]

I experienced this in the Western High Peaks (in the Adirondacks) back in November. We'd had several weeks of cold weather, and then suddenly a warm from came through. I could see (and feel) "rivers" of cold air running down through the gulleys coming off the Seward Range. Down along the cold river, where the cold air was collecting, mist was forming in the woods, but it ended at about head height above the ground. You could feel the temperature difference just by moving your hand up and down in the air. It was pretty cool to experience.

 

[hikerfast]

on mt wachusett today, it was cool with deeper snow at the bottom, the higher up your got, the foot of snow they got was pretty much all slush and melted and bare ground.

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

Lauky and I headed up to Tom today. The Avalon trail was well packed and I wore Hillsounds up to the intersection with A-Z. At the point the trail was less well packed and I started to posthole so I switched to MSRs and left them on until the end of the hike. I had no problem with balling but had to be careful about postholing with the MSRs.

It got so warm I had to strip down and never put it back on. It was definitely warmer at the top than at the valley. The snow was getting softer all day, but the continued passage of folks with skis and snowshoes actually made it possible for some coming up later to bareboot without too much trouble. The snow had all melted off the trees so that was not a factor today.

Interestingly, while Lauky had no problem with postholing, some of the larger dogs were having a problem.

 

[Dave Bear]

Reached the top of Hale today with Thor at about 5:40. Seven hours to climb the fire warden trail sinking 8-10 inches deep. Had started late and did go up and check if today's tracks crossed Little River at the furthest crossing before our climb. The climb up the fire warden was 3h 40m. I had thought it would get better up higher so I kept pushing on. I was in a tee shirt all the way and it was too much on the top. Got one breeze that was tropical feeling. I also saw lightening I assumed was south of the notch on my way down. The return trip to the winter TH at Little River was 3h. I had hoped for colder temps once the sun went down and it barely happened. I can not think of worse conditions to reach a peak like Owl's Head right now. I would rather ford a raging brook than break trail through heavy soft snow for that many miles!

 

[Jazzbo]

Hot and cold air sometimes flows

Hot and cold air sometimes flows. I recall when I was studying forest fire fighting science long time ago. Text book contained section on mountain micro-climate and how sometimes cold and hot air flows up and down drainage valleys similar to flow of water. Yesterday when were hiking down Mt Watatic, we crossed a drainage and experienced pronounced upward flow of warm air as we crossed it.