| The Grand Canyon boasts some of the most | | | | around 110 degrees, and that's in the shade, with |
| polarized weather extremes of anywhere in the | | | | lows only in the low 80s. In the winter, the |
| world. The North rim sits at a mountain elevation | | | | Colorado River has highs of about 60 degrees, |
| of 8,000 feet, the South Rim at 7,000 feet, and | | | | with lows around 40 degrees. |
| the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the | | | | Many people start off OK at the rims, thinking the |
| Colorado River sits at a low-desert elevation of | | | | Canyon isn't really that big of a deal. They start |
| just 2,000 to 2,500 feet. Because of these | | | | without enough water and without enough of a |
| extremes in elevation, the temperatures in the | | | | head start on the heat of the day. Once down in |
| Canyon also have very high highs and very low | | | | the Grand Canyon, they're committed to either |
| lows. People have both frozen to death and been | | | | getting to water or getting back out. When the |
| heated to death, all in areas that are just a couple | | | | heat hits, many of them haven't made it to either. |
| miles from each other. | | | | In the winter, hikers are leaving the Colorado |
| Since it's discovery by Europeans in the mid 1500s | | | | River with highs around 60 and 70 degrees - |
| (actually by Spanish explorer Coronado and his | | | | pretty comfortable. But by the time they're at |
| men), the Grand Canyon has claimed the lives of | | | | the rims they can be a sub-zero degree blizzard. |
| hundreds of people. In the book "Over the Edge: | | | | There are hikers who have actually succumbed to |
| Death in the Grand Canyon" the authors explore | | | | the cold near the rims and been buried in the |
| all of the various ways in which people perish in | | | | snow, only to be found weeks later when the |
| the Canyon. Heating to death, or more exactly | | | | snow melted out. Hard to imagine when one is |
| dying of dehydration- and heat stroke-induced | | | | leaving the warmth of the canyon bottom. |
| cardiac arrest, is the most common way people | | | | Another major factor in Grand Canyon weather is |
| expire in the Canyon. | | | | the monsoon season, which lasts from mid June |
| The rims, being mountain environments, are cool | | | | to mid September, and can usher in devastating |
| in the summer and down right cold in the winter. | | | | thunderstorms. Hikers and boaters need to be |
| At the rims, average highs in the summer are | | | | careful of steep box canyons when there's ANY |
| around 80 degrees, with lows in the 50s. Average | | | | weather in the area. A thunderstorm at the North |
| highs in the winter at the rims are around 40 | | | | Rim can create a flash flood in Phantom Creek 16 |
| degrees, lows around 18 degrees. | | | | miles away, and there are people who've died |
| So starting at the Rim things feel comfortable | | | | there and other places with seemingly no |
| enough, but once down inside the Canyon the | | | | pre-warning. If there's any chance of rain within |
| terrain and weather change drastically! Average | | | | 50 miles in any direction, avoid box canyons. |
| highs at the Colorado River in the summer hover | | | | |