High Sierra Topix

I will be backpacking to Cottonwood Lakes at the end of the week. I know its going to be a 94 high and a 67 low in Lone Pine, but what is the high and low temperture difference at that elevation?

Welcome to the HST, isgeoi!

The simple rule of thumb is that you lose 3.6 degrees drop for every 1000' up. Lapse Rate.

This site explains it, but we learned this in boy scouts for some reason:

http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-ki ... rsions.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It can be thrown off by micro-climates and what the weather pressure systems look like rolling over your destination.

Your other option is pulling up the NOAA weather site and punching in your lat/lon for the intended area.

Hi Isgeoi,

Welcome to HST! As Rlown mentioned you can use either method, the easiest is to go
on the NOAA site as I did here, find Cottonwood Lakes and click on one of the lakes
and you will get the weather forecast for that area.
You will see a small map towards the left hand corner, click on the + sign till you see
Cottonwood Lakes.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... tType=text" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Gotta love the redesigned NWS site. I clicked on the above link for the weather forecast at 11,000ft near Cottonwood Lakes (not sure why I bothered, but I did). In large font at the top it says 116F!!! Apparently somebody thinks the weather at Stovepipe Wells (elevation 80ft), is somehow relevant. There's also a warning at the top of the page for possible severe thunderstorms thousands of miles away. Yeah, there is also a valid forecast on the page, but that's not the first thing your eye is drawn to.

When the new site was in beta they had taken away the little map you can click on for a forecast at one point. At least they brought it back because it's much easier than typing in the lat/longitude.