1921] Smiley: Flora of the Sierra Nevada of Calif orma 19 



of the local climates of Summit (7,017 feet) and of Tamarack (8,000 

 feet), made for the purpose of determining what effect a difference 

 of 1,000 feet might have on temperature, disclosed that for the period 

 of record, eight years, the greatest daily range of temperature observed 

 in each month was as follows (data arranged in the order of months 

 from the first of the year) : 



There are a few observations which tend to show that the daily 

 range of temperature in the alpine region of the Sierra follows the 

 general rule for alpine climates with a maximum near noon and low 

 night temperatures. At JMountain Camp, 11,600 feet, near Mt. Whit- 

 ney, during the twelve days between August 22 and September 2, 

 1881, inclusive, Langley^'^ found the temperature averaging at 



8 :15 A.M., 41.0= F. 

 12:35 P.M., 56.7 

 8:15 P.M., 30.6 



On the summit of Mt. Whitney at the beginning of September he 

 found day maxima of 62.5° and morning minima of 22.5° F. ; the 

 coldest period of the day was between 3 and 6 a.m. On the same 

 summit on July 8, 1903 the temperature rose from 51° at 9 :30 a.m. 

 to a maximum of 55° one hour later.^^ The daily range of tempera- 

 ture suggested by these meager data is far less than the daily ranges 

 reported from other alpine heights, nor does this small range appear 

 to be too exceptional. From a study of conditions on the summit of 

 Mt. Rose, Church^^ concludes that "The most notable characteristic 

 of the temperature on the summit is the smallness of the mean daily 

 range. ' ' 



The summer summit temperatures recorded from Mt. Whitney 

 are supplemented by data from Mt. Rose ; on this peak from June 29 

 to August 4, 1905, the extremes were 24° and 72° F. ; between August 

 4 and September 4, the maximum was 70.8°. The following year 

 similar periods showed minima of 22° and 29.5° and maxima of 71° 

 and 68.8°,^® These summit data appear to show that as far as tem- 

 perature extremes go the Sierran alpine heights are subject to about 

 the same winter extremes and summer minima as stations thousands 

 of feet below but that their summer maxima fall far short of the 

 maxima of lower levels. 



Inspection of the graphs (table 3) of the monthly extremes for 

 the three stations — Summit, Tamarack, and Bodie — shows that even 



