This week, how to tell if it's going to rain in the mountains without a forecast.
Professional mountain leader Kate Worthington will be answering
your outdoor questions weekly on OM. Along with her husband Ross, Kate
runs RAW Adventures offering professional mountain leadership services.
She's generally found outdoors, toting a big pack... Ask a question
This week's question:
'How can I tell if it's going to rain?'
I was with a guy on Skye's Cuillin ridge a few years ago, surrounded by
thick cloud all morning. Suddenly he commented, "Hey, I think
those clouds are going to blow off"… and miraculously,
minutes later, they did.
Wow, I thought he's a Weather Guru™with supernatural climatic
control, but under interrogation, he modestly put it down to a slight
rise in temperature that, through experience, he knew heralded cloud
lifting. The reasons include the sun warming through the thinning cloud
and the rush of uplifted warm air as the clouds are blown away.
As much as I was in awe of this talent, there are in fact noticeable
signs around telling us what the weather is doing or going to do
(mostly rain in the UK!) and here are a few of them:
If you see high wispy clouds in the sky - mare’s tails
- approaching from one direction (usually the west/south
west), chances are that within half a day you will be rained upon as a
warm front approaches. And it will be the annoying, drizzly, grey rain
that we all know and love in the UK.
Next, any sign of cloud thickening and lowering on the mountains will
almost certainly give some sort of precipitation in the next few hours.
Finally, if you wake up after a night of heavy rain and it’s
noticeably cooler – chances are a cold front has passed
over. That day you may get a short, sharp dousing in a heavy
shower but it will mostly be mixed with pleasant sunshine and some
dramatic cloud shapes on the hills, so cheer up!
If you doubt your weather divination talents and want to get a heads-up
about mountain weather before you set out check out the following sites:
The Mountain Weather
Information Service: www.mwis.org.uk
The Met Office Mountain
Forecast: www.metoffice.gov.uk
Metcheck's Mountain
Forecasts: www.metcheck.com
And finally, don't forget that
OUTDOORSmagic
carries a regular Friday morning
mountain
weather outlook courtesy of Walter The Weather Girl with
an overview of the weekend's mountain weather prospects plus all the
links you need to check local variations. Here's
this
week's.
 |
RAW Adventures
is an exciting new company dedicated to providing well organised,
friendly and safe UK mountain events. We run Walking Weekends
for all abilities - keeping group sizes small for safety and
fun. We also organise larger scale Challenge Events for
charities and individuals wanting to raise money while doing something
that pushes you harder than usual!
Owned and operated by experienced and professional Mountain Leaders,
Kate and Ross Worthington, you are in safe hands for learning new
skills and broadening your own experience of the UK mountains. www.raw-adventures.co.uk |
