After long preparation and excited anticipation our annual backpacking trip looked like a real washout – rain from Friday night to Sunday morning. Enduring a couple of days of rain is not anyone’s idea of a great time so we are postponing until next weekend.
But will next weekend’s weather be any better? Before deciding to postpone I checked with the NOAA Climate Prediction Center. The center publishes daily 6-10 and 8-14 day maps that aid long-term forecasting above or below normal temperatures and chances of precipitation (an example of a temperature map is shown above).
These predictions, like any forecast, are reasonably reliable but we’ll still be prepared for rain. Our Scouts and their families feel that most times there is no better predictor of rain than our schedule of camping trips.