Mount Rainier Recreational Forecast/National Weather Service, Seattle, WA: https://a.atmos.washington.edu/data/rainier_report.html
The most detailed, most accurate weather information on the most moody, most I’ll-do-what-I-want mountain I know. As the country’s most glaciated volcano, it often scoops up all the air that blows in off the Pacific and spins it around on its icy flanks to form lenticular clouds and whiteouts and inversions and really whatever weather it feels like making for itself, it will. It can be a beautiful sunny July day down here in the flats, and a tumultuous storm can be raging away at halfway up Rainier. Or like how we climbed up through freezing fog for a bluebird summit day while it rained and snowed at Camp Muir. But was just partially cloudy in town. Get this: right now from the coziness of my couch there looks to be a slight breeze, and it’s 45º and cloudy with intermittent sun breaks — but on the summit of Rainier, 50 miles and another planet away, it’s 1º with 90 mph wind. And 10º with 45 mph wind at Camp Muir! And it’s coming from the north/west so it’s even more bitter cold than a wind like that would be out of the south. This is the kind of information you need if you’re planning on being anywhere at any elevation on that mountain.
This very bare-bones, courier-font, utilitarian web page is incredibly thorough and descriptive for looking like a telegram. Temp and wind for the next three days is listed out at four different elevations (Longmire, Paradise, Camp Muir, the summit), plus a short paragraph for each day going out about a week, what the chance of rain or snow is, if there will be either, how many inches, any potential hazards, commentary about visibility, etc.
Anyone wanting to spend time on that mountain needs to be aware of this forecast; it’s been literally a lifesaver for me a few times, and I’d encourage everyone out there to step up their forecast game and check this page out next time you’re paying a visit to Mt. Rainier National Park.
Wendy Harrington is a California native who has lived in a small town at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state since 2001. Her love of trail running and peakbagging has led her to summit all five Washington volcanoes, climb to the high points of three states, and put nearly a thousand miles a year on her boots. Her loves include ridgelines, saddles, granite, one-day pushes on big mountains, anything volcanic, long solo days, and objectives that push limits and test endurance.
