Useful Weather Sites

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Snow along the Alpine trail near Oakridge, Oregon
Winter is nearly here and that makes heading out into the wilderness slightly more dangerous than the rest of the year. The key to having a safe and awesome time, is being prepared for what weather you may face. I always like to plan for the worst, which often leads to slightly heavier pack weight. There are a lot of weather related sites around and some of them are better than others. My favorite general weather site is the National Weather Service.

Their site is easy to navigate, one can search by zip code or city. Also there is a map that you can click around on and find the area closest to your destination. One of the best features is that are no ads. So once you figure out that it your destination might have some snow I always check out the National Water and Climate Center's website, known as SNOTEL. 

The NRCS offers information about how they collect data and what it all means. I normally just click on my state and then the SNOTEL site closest to where my destination will be. There is a lot of useful information on their site it has saved me from camping past the snow line a few times. The next place I check before leaving is the Oregon Department of Transportation's website, Trip Check.

Trip Check offers you several cameras around Oregon that show mostly up to date still photos of major highways. Also they offer great information about construction and obstruction delays, such as wrecks and land slides. It's updated really often so check it a frequently because we all know how quickly conditions can change!

These are my three go to sites for checking the weather at my hiking or camping destination. Always be prepared, if you have any other sites you prefer please post them below, I love checking out new sites.








Location: Eugene, OR, USA

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