What ARE “summer nighttime temps” where you backpack?

Where I live it can be up in the 90's during the day but have night temps in the 50's.

Canadian Rockies:

May – don't think about it.
June – LOL
July – Maybe – +18-22C during the day, +5C for lows over night.
August – Similar to July.
Sept – +14-18C during the day, -2 to +1C for lows over night.

In the viliges of the Adirondacks, mostly I expect the summer night time temps to be around 60F. It has dropped to 30F when I have been out in July. In the hills, it is usually about 10F cooler or around 50F. July and August are the best times for heat. I usually wake up a bit cold in June and September and throy a sweater on, it runs about 40F average in the hills. It is not unuual to have snow in September and May, so the temps are around 30F at night. Drop another 10F for October and April, but I have seen 0F in October.

Australia, Sydney region – anywhere up to not using any quilt at all until about 3 am. Just slept in my walking clothes. That was a hot night.

Cheers

Most of my opportunities are here in Utah since I've got two little ones. Most of my summer trips are spend in the Uintas since I'm not a fan of the heat. Summer time night temps can range from single digits to the 50's depending upon weather. Most of the time the lows in the summer are in the low 40's and high 30's. I plan my trips around it being as cold as the mid 20's at night so I use a 20F Zpacks bag and have a light puffy jacket, fleece beanie and thin glove liners. The weather in the Uintas can vary quite a bit from what weather forecasts predict.

May 10F-35F

June 20F-50F

July 20F-55F

Aug 20F-50F

Sept 15F-40F

Kenai Peninsula, Alaska: Highs in the 60's, lows of mid-40s to low-50s in the mountains during June, July, and August. May and September are often better for trips because although you wear a sweater during the day (highs in the 50s), you can some freezing nights and those really knock down the mosquitos.

It's interesting in the southwest. We have mountains, beaches, deserts, and forests… Each with different nighttime temps based on the geology and atitudes. Deserts can be 120 in the day and still 50 at night. Altitude camps around the 8-10k range can be 80-90 during the day and any where from 40-80 during the night, entirely dependant on pressure fronts and wind conditions. Forests and lowland areas have a more normal range of 70-80 during the day and 60 at night. All in all I love the spontaneity of SoCal

Summer night temps where I live are 75 to 85 F. And high humidity.

That's why I go backpack in the mountains.

In the sierras, summer may be 25 to 55 F.

In the Appalachians, 45 to 70 F with unpleasant humidity.

Arkansas….I'm not dumb enough to go there in summer. spring, fall, winter only.

"Australia, Sydney region – anywhere up to not using any quilt at all until about 3 am. Just slept in my walking clothes. That was a hot night."

I did experience one extremely hot night. It was so hot that I had to keep drinking water through the night. This water was meant to last me 10 miles the next day. By midnight I had already drank half of my gallon of water and had to bail because of that. The next day was going to be 104 degrees.

Hi Justin

I sympathise!

We were coming out of a very remote and rough region in full sun on limited water once, and going up-hill over a peak. Walk 150 m, rest in shade for 5 minutes. Repeat, many times. OK, by this stage we had no water left. When we finally got to our car and went to the nearest town for a cold drink(s), we were told it was still 40 C (104 F) at 7 pm.
But it was a good walk.

Cheers

I've walked a hypothermic dude out of the Sierra in July. Stats are generally indicative of more hypothermia in summer – come to 9000 feet from 100F at 500F, discover that it's 40-50 during the day, get wet, get out in the wind, get hypothermic.

At night it can get into the low 20s without blinking. It depends. It can snow any day of the year, and as a corollary, temperature does what it pleases sometimes and those layers can really come in handy. One August I aborted a six day trip on day three and spent a day hiking out when night temps plummeted 30 degrees below forecasted lows and my friend was hiking in all her layers trying to stay warm during the day. The clouds sat on New Army Pass and we thought it was going to rain ice on us any time…

Colorado and Wyoming Rockies

I've seen lows down into the mid teens above 10k ft in August, I've seen snow on the 4th of July (several times) and I've seen lows be 15 degrees higher than forecasted.

Alpine weather is completely ridiculous.

Generally I pack for around 20F if camping above 10k ft, regardless of what the weather men are lying to me.

If camping much lower, say 7000 to 8500 ft, lows in the 40's for high summer trips, 20's in the shoulder seasons (May-June, Sept-Oct).

I live in the Yukon and the geography up here means we have a lot of different micro-climates. We already have fresh snow up at higher elevations that's likely to stick around. A neighbour of ours 10 minutes down the road said that it was -8C at his place the other morning, yet we haven't had a frost yet.

When backpacking up here in June, July, or August, regardless of whether we are in the alpine or at lower elevations I always assume that we will be seeing nighttime temperatures that can range between -5C and +10C. Even on hot days it cools down at night, which is actually kind of nice for sleeping.

For May and September I add a bit of a safety margin and we will usually be prepared to see temperatures as cool as -10C. Though in early May and late September it can definitely get cooler than that.

Anytime after that, all bets are off. That's when the real fun begins.

Anyone else excited for winter?

Cheers…

Yeah, 60's on a summer night in Southeast Minnesota is great weather. In the mid-summer months 70's or 80's are normally the lows, with humidity so high you can swim on land.

At Enlightened Equipment, we sell a lot of 20° quilts to people for "three season" use, and I'm always curious which three seasons they mean, because that can be very different depending on where they live.

> for "three season" use, and I'm always curious which three seasons they mean,

LOVE IT!

Cheers

"In the Appalachians, 45 to 70 F with unpleasant humidity."

We normally see somewhere 55-70F for my area in the Appalachians, but still the same unpleasant humidity. Nothing like breathing in & literally feeling the water vapor being sucked into your lungs. :(

Ryan

White Mountains NH… I am prepared for 40s and wear less insulation if it is warmer.

It's snowed in June in the mountains. July and August it can get down into the 30's. I hiked Katahdin July 4th weekend this year and it was in the low 40's after Hurricane Arthur went through. The day before and the day after it was fairly warm, in the 60's

Just got back from a late "summer" trip and nights ranged from 35f down to 9f over the course of ten days. This was in the Winds mostly sleeping over 11,000 feet. Typically my trips occur early summer/late spring or late summer/early fall and these temps are pretty typical.

Most inexperienced people don't understand what a drastic difference elevation can make upon temperatures and weather. I've had to tell several friends to bring warmer clothes than they were initially going to bring when camping and backpacking at elevation.

The conversation always goes something like this: "It's clear skies and 90F today and the low will only be in the high 60's, why do I need a beanie, light gloves, and insulating layers?" and then my response "because we're going to be more than 7000ft higher than here and it'll be much colder and we could have a lot of rain and wind."

They always thank me later when they realize just how cold they would have been if they hadn't prepared for significantly colder, windier and wetter weather.

Eric,

I used to have the same happen all the time when leading day hikes on the Irish mountains, it got so bad I would have to bring spare fleeces hats and gloves to give out to people before we started even though I would always send out a kit lost. It wpuld often be 20-30f colder on the tops.

My wife, buddy and I once came across
Two guys who were soaked to the skin and dehydrated (no water sources up high) and had to sort them out and bring them back down the mountain.

In my area (southcentral Alaska) nighttime summer temps are between 30 and 55 depending. We had quite a warm summer this year and a number of nights were in the high 50's. But we've had cold summers where it drops to freezing at night, also. Particularly in the mountains.

I've been at Feldspar leanto in the Adirondacks on the Fourth of July with enough snow to cover the ground. Be prepared.

A couple weeks ago it was 90F (32C). That was the low, not the high.