What to wear on Mt, Chareston?

If we go to Mt. Charleston or some other higher elevation, will we need warmer clothing?

I calculated the altitude on top of roughly 12,000 feet and McCarran roughly 3,000 feet, the difference being 9,000 feet.

Then I calculated the dry adiabatic lapse rate for a given parcel of dry air of 9.8 C/Km or about 5 l/2°F thousand feet of attitude.

Given the uncertainty of the actual dryness of the parcel of dry air, I figured 2° F per 1,000 feet.

In other words, I figured that if it is 90° at McCarran it will be 70° on top.

So I think that shorts will probably still do.

What to wear on Mt, Chareston?

You can go to this website and click on the link for weather. It will show you the current temp and low for the day. From there if you figure the time of day you looked at the info, and the temp in Vegas for that day, it should give you a decent idea as to what to expect the day and time you go. Enjoy!

http://www.mtcharlestonlodge.com/index.html

What to wear on Mt, Chareston?

Good Lord, man... keep on doing calculations like that and the sheer heat emanating from your brain should keep you toasty!

Never been up there in the summer, but in the winter, it%26#39;s LOTS colder up there than in the city.

Well it depends when you go. In the winter/spring it is where we go for snow. Right now it is a nice break from the heat, shorts and tees are fine.

That%26#39;s kind of a long roundabout way of getting to the same information I would have told you. Dry adiabatic lapse? Whatever that means, you are correct. Mt. Charleston is generally about 20 degrees cooler than in town.

Adiabatic lapse rate is the measurement of the loss of latent heat through the expansion of a given parcel of dry air as it rises.

The tricky part is that the formula is set up for an ideally perfect dry parcel of air and that is rare even in the desert so I used some latitude.

There is another formula for a given saturated parcel of air that’s handy when dealing with thunderstorms but I didn’t bother with that since that would be silly, after all I will be in the desert where dry air is far more common.

I am glad that I can make do with what I have already packed. We leave in 11 days.

Thanks.

What happened to just stick the finger up in the air to get all the same scientific information one needs?

Temperature, humidity, wind speed etc and the old rule of thumb of ';for every 2000 feet elevation, it is 2 degrees cooler';

I meant 1000 feet, 2 degrees cooler.

And missed reading your post that already mentioned that.

Winter -ski togs, sweater and down vest;

Spring/Autumn -light shell or sweat shirt;

summer -usual summer gear.

Sure it%26#39;s cooler on the mountain than in the valley but it ain%26#39;t the Rocks.

I%26#39;ll bet you are a heck of a card counter with blackjack.

Impressive, chi. But what%26#39;s the dew point? ;-)

Re: desert and thunderstorms, I have seen some beauts in Las Vegas and elsewhere (Arizona, Utah) that rival the one that rolled across Wrigley Field on Sunday morning (yikes!). But they tend to happen in the late afternoon during the monsoon season (later in the summer).

Have fun!

lipstick