[pct-l] April 1 start date?

[Suzanne Courteau]

Hola, hikers!

You can never be sure about the weather, but I really don't think
we're going to get significant precip in what's left of March, or
April. We MAY get a little rain up here in the SF Bay Area, but SoCal,
I think you're done. Why? Because Eureka is about average this year,
San Francisco is below average, and Los Angeles is bone-dry. (check
out http://www.weather.gov/climate/index.php):

Eureka
29.66 (this year)
29.72 (normal)
47.42 (last year)

San Francisco
10.13 (this year)
16.66 (normal)
18.13 (last year)

Los Angeles
2.42! (this year)
12.25 (normal)
7.88 (last year)

If I was section-hiking or thru-hiking this year, I'd head out early April.

Suzanne Courteau
"Bedouin"

> But the thought of it, starting April 1st, and presumable a end date by the end of August
> for the average thru hiker is a possibility this year.
[snip]
> The bottom question is, is it realistic to enter the Sierra's 6 weeks or so after April 1st?
> It's a reasonable start date IF the fair weather holds.  And while that's a big IF, the
> National Weather Service on Monday declared that Los Angeles is experiencing its driest
> year on record. Only about 2.40 inches of rain has fallen on downtown Los Angeles since
> July 1It's impossible to predict whether we will get slammed with storms or not.