I live in West Central MT, but have spent the winter in Tulsa, OK, and now it’s time to head back. It’s a 1635 mile trip, and would only take 25 hours if I drove straight through, but I plan on stopping to sleep at night, so I’m looking at 3-4 days of driving. I can only drive eight hours a day before I start to get really tired.
I’m avoiding Denver, so I don’t have to traverse the Rockies, and it only costs me an extra hour of driving. The only stops I plan to make along the way are for food, bathroom breaks, and sleeping. No sightseeing stops. I plan to head north through Kansas and Nebraska and turn west when I get to South Dakota. I then cut through Northeast Wyoming, and head Northwest though Montana until I reach Missoula. I live about 30 minutes south of there.
Since I can choose any day to leave, I’d like to find a 5-day window over the next two weeks where no bad weather is expected anywhere along the way. Is there a way to do this based on my route, so I know what the weather should be like on any given day? Is there a handy app I can tell where I’m starting, where I’m going, and my route, that will provide me a decent 5-day weather forecast for my trip?
I don’t know about any app that does exactly what you want, but you can use pretty much any app and look at its 10-day forecast for a few spots along the trip.
Obviously, the forecast is less accurate, the further out you go. And if you can be flexible, you can go partway and stay somewhere an extra day or so if you need to.
Thanks, I thought of doing that, but since the Midwest weather can change so quickly I worry about getting stuck in a snowstorm, or worse, a tornado, because I didn’t check often enough to know that was an issue.
Long-haul truck drivers must have to deal with this problem all the time, but they have the luxury of being able to pull over and sleep if the weather gets too bad to drive. I have to find a hotel with availability and that will take pets, so I risk spending hours finding a place to sleep as the weather gets progressively worse.
I understand but it doesn’t change that quickly, especially this time of year with low thunderstorm activity. Blizzards are not stealthy and you can expect a few day’s notice.
You could pre-plan to find places along your route that accept pets.
Say, find a spot every 250 miles along your route. That is finding six hotels along the route that you could use if necessary. You’ll never be more than a couple hours from one and most bad weather is not so bad that two hours isn’t enough to get somewhere to wait it out (except a tornado but really…that is a super low probability thing to worry about when driving on a highway).
I have been in some really, really bad rain that seems to hit all of a sudden but most people just pull to the side and wait out the worst of it which is usually not very long.
Be sure to check the weather at least daily. And it’s good that it sounds like you have some flexibility in your routing, so that if the weather gets bad in some spots, you can route around it.
I follow a general rule: take what the weather gives you. In other words, don’t force yourself through really bad weather unless you absolutely must take that route. And if you absolutely must take a given route, be prepared to stop because of inclement weather.
As a general rule, sudden weather shifts are not long weather shifts. So a storm cell mught form quickly, and blow itself out in an hour or two, but a massive storm system is usually days in the making.
Really unexpected bad weather csn generally be dealt with by pulling over and reading a book.
This is correct. But…driving in Denver can be a real pain, especially in the afternoon. I drove through Denver last summer and went through at about 12:30. Traffic was already rather heavy at that time, although it moved with no major slowdowns or stops.
If your route takes you through Denver, be sure to take I-470 from I-70 to I-25 to avoid some of the traffic.
Instead of traveling on I-70 through Denver to I-25, I would suggest driving north through Kansas to I-80 in Nebraska before you turn west. Tulsa to Cheyenne, Wyoming, via I-70 and Denver is 783 miles, according to Google maps. Tulsa to Cheyenne via I-80 is 797 miles. 14 more miles is a small price to pay for not having to deal with the Denver traffic, IMO.
From Tulsa, take 412 (Cimarron Turnpike) to I-35.
Take I-35 north to Wichita. In Kansas, this is part of the Kansas Turnpike.
At Wichita, exit I-35 and take I-135 north to Salina.
At Salina, I-135 ends but becomes US-81. Continue on US-81 north through Kansas into Nebraska. US-81 is four-lane through much of Kansas, then becomes a super-two highway into Nebraska.
At York, Nebraska, turn west onto I-80 and continue to Cheyenne and I-25.
The downside to this route is US-81, which goes through a couple of towns along the way. But that’s not much of a slowdown, compared to a Denver traffic jam. I’ve driven this route several times and it’s a relatively easy drive.
I decided to take the shorter suggested route that skirts by Denver, without crossing the Rockies, and goes due north through Wyoming up into Montana. I checked the weather for the days I would be traveling and everything looked good until I get well into Montana where rain is expected.
I’ve completed the first two legs, drove eight hours each day, and so far there has been no issue with weather, traffic, or anything else. The scenery is amazing, if not somewhat repetitive. I’ll report back when I finish the third and final leg of my trip, but so far I think this is the easiest and best way to get back and forth to Tulsa from where I live in Montana.