Weather

Weather

Climate change is a serious threat to the ecosystems that humans rely upon, and air travel is the fastest-growing contributor to the problem. Lonely Planet regards travel, overall, as a global benefit, but believes we all have a responsibility to limit our personal impact on global warming.

Flying & Climate Change

Pretty much every form of motorized travel generates CO₂ (the main cause of human-induced climate change) but planes are far and away the worst offenders, not just because of the sheer distances they allow us to travel, but because they release greenhouse gases high into the atmosphere. The statistics are frightening: two people taking a return flight between Europe and the US will contribute as much to climate change as an average household’s gas and electricity consumption over a whole year.

Carbon Offset Schemes

Climatecare.org and other websites use ‘carbon calculators’ that allow travelers to offset the level of greenhouse gases they are responsible for with financial contributions to sustainable travel schemes that reduce global warming – including projects in India, Honduras, Kazakhstan and Uganda.

Lonely Planet, together with Rough Guides and other concerned partners in the travel industry, support the carbon offset scheme run by climatecare.org. Lonely Planet offsets all of its staff and author travel.

When to go

America’s size plays to the traveler’s advantage when it comes to weather: it’s always perfect somewhere in the US and just shy of Hades somewhere else.

In other words, either your destination or your trip’s timing may need tweaking depending on the season. For current forecasts, visit www.weather.com.

The main holiday season is, naturally, summer, which typically begins on Memorial Day (the last Monday in May) and ends on Labor Day (the first Monday in September). But Americans take their holidays mainly in summer because schools are closed, not because the weather’s uniformly ideal: yes, hit the beaches in August, because Manhattan is a shimmering sweat bath and the deserts are frying pans.

The seasons don’t arrive uniformly either. Spring (typically March to May) and fall (usually September to November) are often the best travel times, but ‘spring’ in parts of the Rockies and Sierras may not come till June. By then it’s only a sweet memory in Austin, while in Seattle, spring often means rain, rain, rain.

And winter? It’s expensive high-season at ski resorts and in parts of the southern US (blame migrating snowbirds), but planned well, winter can mean you have the riches of America’s landscape virtually all to yourself.

Whether you’re planning to join them or avoid them, holidays and festivals are another thing to consider.