[pct-l] dry conditions

[Bill Burge]

> Palm Springs at 2% of normal that year!

Eh, I grew up in PS.

Three guys and a case of beer could have covered that discrepancy!  ;-)

But seriously, annual average is 5.8 inches a YEAR.

BillB



On Dec 1, 2009, at 11:41 AM, Gary Wright wrote:

>
>> Whitney had only 5% of normal Precip. that year.  The
>> Sierra is hurting for water
>
> That 5% figure seemed quite extreme to me so I did some googling and  
> was mildly surprised. From the precip data at <http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/monthly_precip_2007.php 
> > I didn't find any large zones of 5% of normal precip but there are  
> several in the 10-20% range. The Independence station reported 31%  
> of normal and the Inyokern-Kern station reported 11%. The lowest I  
> found in a quick scan of the data was Palm Springs at 2% of normal  
> that year!
>
> In any case I'd recommend that next year's PCT class strongly  
> consider hiking without a stove in the driest areas.  If you do have  
> a stove, try to cook on rock slabs and dirt and far away from any  
> grasses or vegetation.  I hiked from Agua Dulce to KM without using  
> a stove in 2007 without much trouble.  I used a stove from KM to  
> Yosemite where it is much easier to cook safely. I was section  
> hiking that year so I don't have any direct experience with the  
> drought conditions north of Yosemite during that year.
>
> Some stove-less meal suggestions:
>
> tortillas work for snacks, lunch, dinner:
>  -- cheese, summer sausage/pepperoni, onion
>  -- tuna with mayo (use small condiment pkgs)
>  -- peanut butter + gorp (any variety)
>  -- carry out sandwich/pizza for first dinner out
>     of town
>
> Gary Wright (Radar)
>
>
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