- An Alaskan climate scientist has created the perfect weather road trip.
- Brian Brettschneider's "70°F Road Trip" map will have you following the best temperatures.
Sick of bad weather on vacation? Try this year-long, cross-country road trip where the weather should always be a perfect 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Alaska climate scientist Brian Brettschneider released a "70°F Road Trip" map that will take you on a trek across the contiguous US chasing the best temperatures where the high hits an average of 70 degrees.
"People have gotten in a car or a camper or a train, and they've watched the world pass by," Brettschneider told NPR. "So this is a way to kind of reinvigorate a road trip in a way that people really haven't ever really thought about before."
Brettschneider created three US routes for the perfect weather trip: one that hugs the coasts, one that carves up the interior of the nation, and a third route that connects the two for the ultimate not-too-hot, not-too-cool road trip.
The longest combined US trip starts in Brownsville, Texas on New Year's Day and takes you up through Texas, reaching Little Rock, Arkansas by April. From there, road trippers swing east to Memphis, Tennessee, and over to the nation's capital, Washington, DC.
In May, you'll take I-95 north to Boston before a two-month trek through Michigan, then Montana, and over to Seattle, Washington along the Pacific coast.
You'll spend the summer up in Oregon before diving over into Idaho and Utah in September. Finally, take a right at Albuquerque, New Mexico in October to reach Flagstaff and Phoenix, Arizona in November — then ring in the New Year in San Diego, California.
Brettschneider also created a 13,000-mile route that takes you into Alaska and Canada during the hot summer months to escape the heat.
Brettschneider first created a 70-degree weather road trip map in 2015 and said he never expected it to resonate with people as much as it has.
This 2023 version has shifted slightly due to climate change, but not as much as you'd expect, he wrote.
"It's just too short of a time period to capture the distance change," Brettschneider said.
He told NPR that he hasn't heard of anyone actually going on the road trip yet, but said he might be up for it someday.
"It's a road trip that is best suited to someone who is retired, and I'm still quite a ways away from retirement," he said. "So who knows? Maybe, when I retire, things will have warmed to the point where maybe there's not a 70-degree route anymore."