HikeArizona.COM

Can anyone advise on the best way to predict what the low temperature will be inside the canyon. It looks like the closest weather station is at over 4,000 ft and the inner canyon is around 2,800 ft.

Thanks

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.p ... C2kSORlDDt

@morg
The link you provided is called a "point forecast". It is based on the average elevation of the square displayed at the point you clicked, not the nearest station (in this case 3,599ft). It's not 100% accurate, but does a very good job of determining the forecast at the specific point selected. If you click a bit further downstream, or even at the west end of the canyon where it opens up, you can select a point with an elevation that's closer to that of the bottom of the canyon.

One rule of thumb that you can generally count on is that during clear, dry weather, the bottom of a canyon will almost always be several degrees cooler than surrounding areas of the same (or even higher) elevation. Cold air sinks.

In Aravaipa, I would plan on it being 5+ degrees cooler than it says at night, and pretty close to right on during the day.

There's also a station up the road at Winkleman that's at 1985 feet and down the road at Mammoth at 2621ft which can give you some more data to add to your knowledge bank. https://www.weather.gov/wrh/timeseries? ... 0&hours=72
https://www.weather.gov/wrh/timeseries? ... 0&hours=72

Chose your campsite wisely. My house sits at almost 2800 feet and when I walk my dog across the large neighborhood watershed the temps drop a noticeable 10 degrees or more first thing in the morning.

The very general rule of thumb I've used is that the temperature swings roughly 3.5 degrees per 1000 feet of elevation gain/loss. Though this doesn't take into account things like radiant heat bouncing off rocks, tree cover, washes, etc...