Geocaching weather

[+mr.mudd]

What kind of weather will keep you from geocaching for the day?

 

Do clouds really affect the accuracy of your GPS?

[+Allanon]

It's going to be 90°+ here this week...I won't be caching.

[+mr.mudd]

Yeah, I've been miserable on some hot days, but 90+ degree weather is hard to avoid during a Texas summer.

 

I'm thinking more along the lines of days when it's overcast....it's overcast a lot in Washington State isn't it? Does that affect the accuracy of your GPS unit?

[+StarBrand]

Yeah, I've been miserable on some hot days, but 90+ degree weather is hard to avoid during a Texas summer.

 

I'm thinking more along the lines of days when it's overcast....it's overcast a lot in Washington State isn't it? Does that affect the accuracy of your GPS unit?

The frequencies used for GPS signals were specificaally chosen due to the fact that most weather conditions have only a minor affect on the system.

 

I cache in all weather types except thunderstorms (lightening kills!). I have cached in -25F temperatures during a snowstorm. I have cached in 113F weather in the desert. I have cached in 90% humidy and 95F. I cache in the snow, rain, sleet. No big deal to me.

[+RS67Man]

One nice thing about the Pacific Northwest is we do have trees. On days like this week with 90+ temperatures, a hike in the woods is much more comfortable because you are in the shade, most of the time. Caching in the dessert or in the parts of Texas where there are not many trees on a hot day would make me too hot in short order.

 

BTW, the Puget Sound area actually has much nicer weather then everyone has been told, as long as it is not winter. We are famous for weeks on end of drizzly, dreary, grey, and dim winter days that will suck the happiness out of anyone. Come visit us anytime, but stay away for the winter.......

[+bittsen]

One nice thing about the Pacific Northwest is we do have trees. On days like this week with 90+ temperatures, a hike in the woods is much more comfortable because you are in the shade, most of the time. Caching in the dessert or in the parts of Texas where there are not many trees on a hot day would make me too hot in short order.

 

BTW, the Puget Sound area actually has much nicer weather then everyone has been told, as long as it is not winter. We are famous for weeks on end of drizzly, dreary, grey, and dim winter days that will suck the happiness out of anyone. Come visit us anytime, but stay away for the winter.......

 

Dont give away the secret. Someone here in PoTown let the Californians know it doesn't always rain here.... Gues what happened?

 

 

Clouds don't affect the GPS signal much but the trees sure do. I won't go out much after about 90 degrees and will surely stay out of the sun with those temps. Too many days in the hot sun when I was younger made me very intiolerant to the sun/heat combo.

[+Hrethgir]

Heat doesn't bother me, but I hate rain, so I won't cache when it's raining. And I've never had much of a problem with clouds or trees affecting my reception, and I recntly did a run out in the woods. Had to stop down sometimes and give the GPSr a chance to get it's bearings back if I was in deep cover, but it always worked fine.

[+bittsen]

Heat doesn't bother me, but I hate rain, so I won't cache when it's raining. And I've never had much of a problem with clouds or trees affecting my reception, and I recntly did a run out in the woods. Had to stop down sometimes and give the GPSr a chance to get it's bearings back if I was in deep cover, but it always worked fine.

 

Thats what I meant with the tree cover. Every once in a while you need to let the signal catch up. Still works in tree cover but not nearly as efficient as out in the open on a clear day.

[wandering_yoopers]

We only recently started GeoCaching. 9 of our 11 finds so far have been in miserable low forties and raining weather. Didn't really bother us much. We went home with soggy feet everyday. The whole time we really didn't have much trouble with accuracy of our GPSr. Trees do cause some troubles, but as long as you are patient you will be fine.

[+9Key]

I've always heard clouds and rain don't affect GPS signals but I still won't hide a cache if its heavily overcast or raining, just in case. I guess the cloud cover thing is the geocaching version of an old wives tale.

[+briansnat]

Nothing that I can think of. If I want to go, I don't care about the weather. I actually prefer being oudtoors in inclement weather and the worse the better.

[+baloo&bd]

Heavy lightning. I am a pretty goo target even though I think I am very grounded, I seem to be more of a lightning rod.

 

Other than that, pretty much everything goes.

[+hikerT]

I've cached in every weather there is... hot weather, deep snow, rain, you name it, I've been in it. Sometimes you just have to dress for the weather, take a bunch of extra clothes and shoes and get out there. A group of us cached 12 hours on a rainy day, did over 20km of hiking with intermittent thunder and lightning and extreme downpours at times. We still wonder why we were trying to dodge the puddles along the trails in our wet boots... which were soaked before we even found our first cache.

[+Casting Crowns]

I will cache in any weather....lightning aside (being a Master Electrician I don't play). Even then, I'll wait until it passes over. I'm an admitted FTF hound...[:I]

 

It SEEMS to me that my geep (Garmin Etrex Legend) has BETTER signal when it's cloudy as well as accuracy than on a clear day! I thought it was odd but, 9 times out of 10 it's held true.

[+jmd65]

I don't mind caching in a light rain, but here in Texas it has been 100F-106F for the last two months every day, and I won’t go on a long hike to a location, I stick to things I can get to within a few minutes. I hope the temperature moderates around about Oct, so I can start back on long hikes.

 

Just about the only thing that affects my eTrex is very heavy tree cover.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

28 states, snow and ice storms on mountain tops, raining in the cities and forests, the deserts brilliant heat... even one memorable 34 hour cache run in TN when it never stopped raining, day, night, we've cached in it all and always gotten enough signal to make the finds!

 

Except in caves!

 

Edited July 28, 2009 by TheAlabamaRambler

[+mr.mudd]

So it seems the consensus is to watch out for lightning and that cloud cover shouldn't affect my GPS that much. Thanks for the responses.

[+The Zachalope]

I've cached in everything from thunderstorms to sunshine. The only thing I'll avoid is if the Weather Channel is calling for potentially severe weather, I won't stray far from home.

 

Call me crazy, but my favourite time for caching is winter. There's nothing better than getting an FTF (or even a regular cache) after tromping a two miles in 38 inches of snow when the temperature is -12°F (-24°C) and one heck of a wind.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Come rain shine sleet or hail nothing will stop your geocache log mail.

 

And the AlabamaRambler is right.

I have lost all signal once inside the cave.

 

That reminds me of that old geocache.

 

Lost Signal!

[+Puppy Dawg]

100F+? Sure no prob. It'll keep me form longer hikes, that's all. 0F-? Never.