USA Road-trip: 70 ° the whole time
Want to take a year-long road trip in which the high temperature is close to 70 degrees the whole time? A dude from Alaska named Brian Brettchneider has mapped the course.
It starts in San Diego Jan. 1, is near Minneapolis in June, Fairbanks in July and takes you into Florida in December.
After poring over copious weather and climate data, Brettschneider, a researcher for the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, devised a hypothetical year-long road trip that would follow the best odds of ideal weather. Covering 13,909 miles, the route navigates enormous stretches of North America, shifting north and south with the changing seasons. The goal? Hew as close to 70-degree conditions as possible.
70°F Road Trip
What constitutes "nice" weather? That is a question that I have spent a lot of time thinking about over the years. Unfortunately there is no satisfactory answer. One person's nice day is reason enough for someone else to complain. We hear on the television newscast that the weather will be pleasant, or nice, or unsettled, or some other descriptive term that conforms to the expectation of what is most desirable.
North America
What if have a passport and decided to expand our travels to include Canada and Alaska (no passport required). The portion of the trip that begins in deep south Texas on January 1 all the way through the first part of June remains the same as before.
Proposed route across North America where the normal high temperature is always at, or very near 70°F.
January - On January 1, the normal high temperature in deep south Texas is 70°F. This is a good place to start the trip.
February - By February 1, our road trip has only progresses as far as Laredo, Texas. The next two months will be spent on Interstate 35.
March - On March 1, the slow trek is only pulling up to the south part of San Antonio, Texas.
Throughout the month of March, the higher sun angle warms things up and the trip has taken us to the Texas/Oklahoma border by April 1st.
April - Now that April is upon us, we start heading east and northeast until we near the nation's Capitol by the end of the month.
May - During May, we go through Pittsburgh and Chicago and end the month in extreme northern Wisconsin on June 1st.
June - A tour of the northern states is in order to during June. In fact, we go more miles in June than any other month. Starting around the second week of June, our route makes a right turn on to the Alcan Highway. We travel through Calgary and go past Whitehorse on our way to and through Alaska's two largest cities. The month ends near Whitehorse (again) heading southeast.
July - In July, we turn on Highway 37 and head south toward Bellingham, Washington, and finish the month in Portland, Oregon.
August - The August portion of the trip is a scenic section along Highway 101 through Oregon.
September - In September, we loop back onto Interstate 5 before turning due east in Eugene, Oregon. We continue through to the Snake River Plain in Idaho before turning south through South Dakota and into Nebraska.
October - In October, the trip makes its way to near Kansas City, Kansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and ends at the Texas/New Mexico state line.
November - The November portion of the trip follows Interstate 10 from Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Arizona, where it then heads north along Interstate 40, before departing for Las Vegas, Nevada, and ending near Los Angeles, California.
December - December is another leisurely month that only takes us from Los Angeles to San Diego, California.
This version of the route traveled through parts of 31 states and 3 Canadian provinces. All-in-all we put over 13,000 miles on our vehicle.
We are going to use this as inspirations and start a more detailed monthly route that stays off the interstate and hits all the oddball spots.
