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Climbing Weather

A simple forecast is good.
Occasionally, more can be nice.

For a Few Days

Cameras

Weather cameras are a good supplement to checking current conditions. Forecasts can be wrong, and crag-local weather can be different from the nearest town: On the East Coast, clouds will settle into valleys keeping rock wet for much longer. On the West Coast, individual storms can wander, affecting neighboring areas differently. In these cases, it's nice to get an image of the conditions at the crag.

Rocks, Specifically

  • The NPS maintains webcams for many national park features. Take, for example, the cameras around Devil's Tower, Zion, and The New River Gorge. The NPS keeps webcam images (when available) under each park's Photos & Multimedia page.
  • The AAC keeps an index of Crag Cams
  • bishopweather.com covers much of the climbing in the Bishop Area.

Weather Cameras

Traffic Cameras

These aren't as readily useful, but can fit some situations well. Many states offer decent coverage.

Other Cameras

Weather Radio

Redundancy Matters: Pads and spotters. Opposite and opposing biners. For any remote climbing, a weather radio is a smart way to stay informed.

Weather Radio is goverment run and broadcasts 24/7. It's not available on standard AM/FM receivers. In the US, we have NOAA Weather Radio; similar services from other goverments are listed on Wikipedia.

NOAA Weather Radio is a spoken broacast that rotates through various forecasts and and regionally relevant info. You can tune in at or (noon) for warnings; most days there are no warnings.

For a Couple Weeks

The National Weather Service is the go-to choice for climbers in The United States. All commercial alternatives use data from the national service to make their own predicitions.

National Weather Service has a variety of forecast types and comprehensive historical data. For climbers in poor-service areas, the text-only forcasts can also be useful (see this example of yosemite)

Weather Forecast Offices

At a regional level, the National Weather Service has Weather Forecast Offices. These WFOs specialize in the needs of a local area. Sometimes these needs local needs are helpful for climbers. For example, The focus of an WFO isn't always applicable to climbers — when it's helpful, it can be an indespensable resource.

  • Red Rocks falls under the vef office
  • The Gunks is covered by the bgm office
  • Horeshoe Canyon Ranch's WFO is lzk

Non-USA Services

On a global scale, the forecasts from the World Meteorological Organization

For Next Season

The National Weather Service is the go-to choice for climbers in The United States. All commercial alternatives use data from the national service to make their own predicitions.

National Weather Service has a variety of forecast types and comprehensive historical data. For climbers in poor-service areas, the text-only forcasts can also be useful (see this example of yosemite)

At a regional level, the National Weather Service has Weather Forecast Offices. These WFOs specialize in the needs of a local area. Sometimes these needs local needs are helpful for climbers. For example, Red Rocks falls under the vef office, The Gunks is covered by the bgm office, and Horeshoe Canyon Ranch's WFO is lzk. The focus of an WFO isn't always applicable to climbers — when it's helpful, it can be an indespensable resource.

On a global scale, the forecasts from the World Meteorological Organization

Complex Graphs