Lampmile · summit wind forecasts

La Plata Peak summit wind forecast

Sawatch Range · summit 4,372 m (14,344 ft) · 39.0295° N, 106.4730° W

Lampmile forecasts the wind on La Plata Peak for the next 72 hours, in three-hour steps, at the summit and at named points on its routes. The numbers start from the wind in the free atmosphere at the summit's height, read from each weather model (ECMWF's IFS and AIFS and NOAA's GFS and HRRR) at the pressure level the summit sits at, and are shown as a range across the models, widened by how the forecast has verified at stations.

On the map, a terrain wind field solved over the mountain's own ground shows how its ridges, cols and slopes bend that wind, and each named point is marked exposed or sheltered for each hour's wind direction. The page also marks the calmer windows under a wind threshold you choose, the hours when a model calls a storm, the freezing level, cloud, and the snowline from this week's satellite snow cover, and a planner works out a start time and a turnaround for a route.

Routes on the map

Named points with their own forecast

Checked against stations

No weather station near La Plata Peak reports to Lampmile yet, so the page infers its forecast's error from summit stations elsewhere, and says so.

A forecast here is one input among several. It does not resolve gusts, lee turbulence, rotors or thermally driven winds, and those regimes are low confidence. Make your own assessment on the mountain, and turn around when what you see disagrees with what you read here.

Other mountains

The live forecast, the 3D map and the climb planner open with the page's script. Questions and corrections to matt@lampmile.com · Privacy