70-degree days (12 monthly maps)

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wayne49 said:
The issue I see is that you did not go far enough and overlay with a free campsite map. j/k


Overlaying with a free campsite map seems a pretty useful idea.

I wish there was a universal way to export from other people's maps the data they use to populate their/those maps. Then any/all of us could mix-and-match in ways that were useful to us.

One of the things I'm working on is combining air-quality locations with my temperature layers. I'm using the list of locations that the American Lung Association updates each year called State of the Air. My thinking along this line is that it's relatively pointless to find areas with comfortable weather if being outside in that comfortable weather exposes one to unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.

Thanks for sharing that idea. It's got me thinking again :)
 
After reading the thread Optimal driving route for 70 degree high every day yearI got curious whether it was possible to find 70-degree days year-round. To answer this question, I used data from nearly 7,200 weather stations run by the national weather service to create a Google Map for each month of the year.

The maps show monthly averages of daily high temperatures for each weather station, averaged over 30-years time (to smooth out any extremes due to unusual circumstances).

With the '70-degree days' goal in mind, I keyed these maps to show the following:

  • Hearts in a green circle are the 'sweet spot': 68-72 degrees.
For a bit of context, I also color-coded a 5-degree range above and below that sweet spot:

  • Tiny blue dots are daily high temperatures between 63 and 67 degrees.
  • Tiny orange dots are daily high temperatures betweem 73 and 77 degrees.
The remaining tiny gray dots are temperatures that fall outside this overall 15-degree range of temperatures (so, either below 63 or above 77).

Anyone who's seriously interested in mapping out where to be for year-round 70-degree days will find these maps invaluable. July and August are the months with the fewest locations in that sweet-spot temperature range (68-72) so I suggest first picking places from those months and then planning the rest of your travels around those relatively limited options.

Each map will take a few moments to load because of the number of weather stations it includes. Once loaded, make sure the check box next to each of the 4 layers is checked. This will make visible the locations. All 4 layers ought to be checked (I had to use 4 layers because Google Maps limit each map layer to a maximum of 2,000 data points. Given nearly 7,200 weather stations, that's 4 layers).

These are standard Google Maps which I've shared to anyone who has the link. No sign-in is required, but they are read-only. For anyone who may wish to use this data in their own Google Maps, I've exported the data for each month's map into .kmz files. If anyone would like to import this data into their own Google Maps, let me know and I'll upload those files someplace where you can download them.

Happy journeys!



JANUARY (click here for map)
  • 71 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 128 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 257 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
FEBRUARY (click here for map)
  • 133 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 189 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 504 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
MARCH (click here for map)
  • 232 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 733 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 827 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
APRIL (click here for map)
  • 911 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 996 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 1,191 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
MAY (click here for map)
  • 1,370 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 1,930 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 1,348 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
JUNE (click here for map)
  • 1,504 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 521 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 130 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
JULY (click here for map)
  • 406 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 82 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 42 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
AUGUST (click here for map)
  • 637 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 107 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 34 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
SEPTEMBER (click here for map)
  • 1,816 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 1,390 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 348 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
OCTOBER (click here for map)
  • 920 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 1,169 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 1,325 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
NOVEMBER (click here for map)
  • 247 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 579 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 810 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).
DECEMBER (click here for map)
  • 86 weather stations showing 73-77 (Five degrees ABOVE sweet spot).
  • 115 weather stations showing 68-72 (Seventy degrees, plus/minus 2).
  • 352 weather stations showing 63-67 (Five degrees BELOW sweet spot).

If you have any questions about, or problems with, the maps, let me know and I'll do my best to answer/fix things. Enjoy!
Would love to see these maps. But get error msg "URL not found..." when clicking on links. Can you help?
 
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