We are closing in on our plan! We intend to purchase our 5th wheel in October and park it at a nearby RV campground for a month while we make our final transitions. Currently we are living in Central Ohio. Traveling in our new home will be myself, Husband, 2 daughters age 2 and 6 and my mother!
My current curiosity is planning the travel - at least to some extent. To be honest, I don't know that much about the weather in other parts of the country. We would like to start planning our route (we are traveling indefinitely) but I am not sure where to start. It is obvious to me that we will need to head for warmer weather as it can get pretty cold in the Winter -that's clear. But then what? We only intend to stay at each location for 1-2 months depending on the job situation. I am nervous that we will travel through parts of the country when weather is NOT most ideal. Yes, I know that weather can be unpredictable, but there are certainly weather patterns we should be aware of.
So - the question is, how do you attack this? And, can you point me to great websites that can help? Are there apps or online tools that can help us plan a successful route?
Thank you in advance - getting excited!
Abby
Technomadia said
07:03 PM Jul 26, 2013
Hi Abby... and welcome!
Weather is indeed something that is worthwhile getting in tune with. Highly recommend getting a weather alert radio, and setting it to each new locality. There are also weather radio apps, that are useful if you happen to be in cellular signal (we like 'WeatherRadio' on our iPhones - it auto changes our location and gives us audio alerts when there's something up).
We also have a couple apps we use for general weather checking - Weather Channel and Dark Skies being two of our favorites. One thing I do when we starting thinking about places we want to head to next, is I start following the weather at our potential destinations and major routing milestones. I have used iGoogle's weather gadget for that, but Google is retiring iGoogle in a couple months - I haven't found a suitable replacement yet.
As far as route planning - best you can do is know general seasonal patterns for various locations. Know when it's tornado season, hurricane season, flood season and what areas of the country those impact to better reduce your risks of being caught off guard. There may be resources online for overviews of this, but I don't know any off the top of my noggin.
And obviously, south in the winter and north and/or elevation in the summer.
But even then, you can still get caught with unseasonal weather changes. And as much as we like to try to be in good weather year round, sometimes you just can't depending on where you need/want to be. For instance, 4 summers in a row we've gotten caught with high temps for various reasons (loved one's health, RV situations, work, etc.). This year we vowed not to, and were heading for the Pacific Northwest for the summer... but broke down in Billings, MT needing a 5-6 week repair. So, we're yet again in an area with high temps, despite our best intentions.
- Cherie
Neil and Connie said
07:14 PM Aug 11, 2013
Weather.com can tell you average temps for anywhere. For us, if I have to out on long pants it's time to go south and if we have to run the A/C much it's time to head north. Winter is in Fort Myers FL and we are traveling in WA and OR this summer.
bjoyce said
07:48 PM Aug 11, 2013
Some friends of ours said they like to follow Spring, meaning Springtime temperatures is the ideal. Western WA and OR are good choices for that in summer, though hot weather can happen. I agree on Fort Myers, it is a favorite winter spot for us and we hope to return there in 2014.
Lucky Mike said
09:08 PM Aug 11, 2013
Any where south of New England for me!!!!.......I will even take the snow in southern Va. for starters after the last couple years.....LOL
GENECOP said
10:08 PM Aug 11, 2013
South in the winter, North in the summer, rough plan....
Hello -
We are closing in on our plan! We intend to purchase our 5th wheel in October and park it at a nearby RV campground for a month while we make our final transitions. Currently we are living in Central Ohio. Traveling in our new home will be myself, Husband, 2 daughters age 2 and 6 and my mother!
My current curiosity is planning the travel - at least to some extent. To be honest, I don't know that much about the weather in other parts of the country. We would like to start planning our route (we are traveling indefinitely) but I am not sure where to start. It is obvious to me that we will need to head for warmer weather as it can get pretty cold in the Winter -that's clear. But then what? We only intend to stay at each location for 1-2 months depending on the job situation. I am nervous that we will travel through parts of the country when weather is NOT most ideal. Yes, I know that weather can be unpredictable, but there are certainly weather patterns we should be aware of.
So - the question is, how do you attack this? And, can you point me to great websites that can help? Are there apps or online tools that can help us plan a successful route?
Thank you in advance - getting excited!
Abby
Weather is indeed something that is worthwhile getting in tune with. Highly recommend getting a weather alert radio, and setting it to each new locality. There are also weather radio apps, that are useful if you happen to be in cellular signal (we like 'WeatherRadio' on our iPhones - it auto changes our location and gives us audio alerts when there's something up).
We also have a couple apps we use for general weather checking - Weather Channel and Dark Skies being two of our favorites. One thing I do when we starting thinking about places we want to head to next, is I start following the weather at our potential destinations and major routing milestones. I have used iGoogle's weather gadget for that, but Google is retiring iGoogle in a couple months - I haven't found a suitable replacement yet.
As far as route planning - best you can do is know general seasonal patterns for various locations. Know when it's tornado season, hurricane season, flood season and what areas of the country those impact to better reduce your risks of being caught off guard. There may be resources online for overviews of this, but I don't know any off the top of my noggin.
And obviously, south in the winter and north and/or elevation in the summer.
But even then, you can still get caught with unseasonal weather changes. And as much as we like to try to be in good weather year round, sometimes you just can't depending on where you need/want to be. For instance, 4 summers in a row we've gotten caught with high temps for various reasons (loved one's health, RV situations, work, etc.). This year we vowed not to, and were heading for the Pacific Northwest for the summer... but broke down in Billings, MT needing a 5-6 week repair. So, we're yet again in an area with high temps, despite our best intentions.
- Cherie
Weather.com can tell you average temps for anywhere. For us, if I have to out on long pants it's time to go south and if we have to run the A/C much it's time to head north. Winter is in Fort Myers FL and we are traveling in WA and OR this summer.