Weekend Weather Outlook

Weekend Weather 27th-28th March 2004 Our regular Friday round-up of what's in store for the weekend. Just check the links for the relevant weather forecasts and if you want to know how things look in a particular area right now, check out the OM web cams page - see link further down the page - for a selection of hill cams. And whatever you do, have a good one. Two general links. First UK Weather which gives you the option of an hour by hour local forecast for anywhere in the UK as well as UK maps, a fishing forecase, ahem, and a lot more besides. Then there's Metcheck, a neat, chatty Jamie Oliver-style met site that incorporates live data feeds, comment and longerm forecasts. They also have a mountain forecast that allows you to select an individual peak and check hourly details of temperature, wind speed, rain, cloud, visibility for the next 72 hours, brilliant. How come we didn't notice that before then? Stil no summer visible yet they say :-( Geoff Monk and Associates has a brilliant new downloadable mountain-specific forecast for Eastern and Western Highlands, Peak and Lakes in PDF format. The next day forecast is issued late afternoon the day before and features pretty much all the information you need if you're heading out onto the hills including temperatures on the tops, wind speeds and what they mean to you as a walker and precipitation information. At the moment it's on a trial basis, so take the time to register an interest on the site as it's an invaluable resource and the best of its kind we've seen for a while. There's also a two-day outllook for the weekend and a general comment on what to expect in the medium term. All in all, a brilliant addition to the web's mountain weather resources. Cloudy and uneventful with little sun and maybe some drizzle seems to ebe the verdict. fo the weekend. Check out the Nevisport's mountain weather forecast covering the main UK mountain areas, updated twice a day and giving both a general overview and a three-day outlook with useful stats like wind speed, freezing levels and both valley and summit temperatures. There's also a general UK forecast. Good to see a mountain specific forecast back at long last. Check the site for individual data. The Met Office outlook for Saturday - looks like cloudy, little sunshine, light winds mostly dry except north of the border where there may be sunny spells and showers. Sunday Southern half overcast, northern half cloudy with sunny intervals otherwise much like Saturday. Welsh Mountain Forecasts Excellent online forecasts covering the National Park areas of Snowdonia - and the Brecon Beacons. Part of a six-month trial now coming to an end.

The BBC Weather site uses Met Office data, but is generally easier to follow. Streaming video weather forecasts also available on the site. Saturday 'England and Wales starting cloudy with some rain or drizzle. Becoming mostly dry, with some sunshine developing. Scotland and N.Ireland mostly cloudy with some drizzly rain. Temperatures near or a little above normal.' It says here. Sunday 'Many places rather cloudy, with the odd showers. There will also be some sunshine. Cloudy with some rain over Scotland, this clearing with sunny spells developing. Temperatures around normal, rather warm in any sunshine.' Check BBC's specific areas: Fort William / Kendal / Betws-y-Coed / Aviemore / Skipton / Glossop (Peak) / Brecon / Milton Keynes. Sunday looks like the better day in most areas.

Wasdaleweb weather - daily reports updated before 10 am, a local forecast and a current pic - always worth a loook just for the piccy. - from OM member Guy Newbold who lives and works in Wasdale. Guy's just invented Wasdale Web and you should be directed there automatically from the link above. The Wasdaleweb Webcam now has a flash new camera for higher quality images and they looks great plus there's now s a new Scafell Pike web cam. Scottish Avalanche Information Service - Check the latest avalanche and snow conditions forecast for the five main Scottish climbing areas before heading out. Things are startng to warm up and today, Friday, the forecast is generally 'high' or 'considerable' with risk of cornice collaps. Definitely a weekend to watch yourself and check the forecast as everything starts to slide with spring - theoretically - on the way.

OUTDOORSmagic web cam page Links to all the UK mountain web cams we're aware of. If there's one that we've missed, please drop us a line and we'll add it to the page. Good for getting a general idea of what the snow situation's like, if the sun is shining, whether there's anywhere to park in Coniston etc. Check the image you're viewing is up to date as they often seem to go down. Ho hum... Not wet, not windy, not particularly cold. A bit of a non-event really... Verdict One of those nothing sort of weekends. It may be close to average in temperature, but you can still expect it to be 3 or 4 C high up on English hills, slightly cooler in Scotland, so don't go thinking it's spring just yet. Cloud around too, so watch that navigation and have a good one. Can we have spring soon please? Obvious Disclaimer Hey come on, we all know mountain weather's unpredictable, and while the above forecasts and links are a guide to what the weather may do, remember that mountain areas also tend to generate their own conditions, temperatures are much cooler up top than in the valleys and conditions can be totally different from down in the valleys.