Weekend Weather Outlook

Weekend Weather 5th-6th June 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. One general link: 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 forecast, ahem, and a lot more besides. Metcheck for good overviews as well as a mountain forecast that allows you to select indidual peaks throught the UK with a 72-hour graphic summary of conditions hour by hour plus a load of other interesting stuff. 'Summer Jim, but not as we know it' says Metcheck. They reckon it's a bit feeble this weekend, though warmiong up and any rain will be light and confined to the north thanks to a weak ridge of high pressure. So not that bad then... Geoff Monk and Associates has a great downloadable mountain-specific forecast for Eastern and Western Highlands, Peak District and Lakes in PDF format. Pretty damn good for English and Welsh hills right through the weekend with a weak high pressure ridge bringing hazy sunshine and light winds - cloudier in the west. Scotland gets rain on western hills on Saturday with maybe some drizzle in the east, with Sunday looking better. Then it gets hot early next week in a hot and hazy sort of stylee... Nevisport's mountain weather forecast covers the main UK mountain areas, updated twice a day and gives both a general overview and a three-day outlook with useful stats like wind speed, freezing levels and both valley and summit temperatures. Met Office outlook for Saturday 'Northwestern areas rather cloudy, with some patchy rain at times. Remaining areas dry with variable amounts of cloud, and some bright or sunny spells. Warm or very warm in the sunnier spots. ' Sunday similar. For localised five-day forecasts use this page. 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 but still up and running.

BBC Weather Site Saturday 'Northwestern areas rather cloudy, with some patchy rain at times. Remaining areas dry with variable amounts of cloud, and some bright or sunny spells. Warm or very warm in the sunnier spots.' Sunday 'The far northwest rather cloudy with some patchy rain. Remaining areas dry with some good spells of sunshine developing, although still rather cloudy near some western coast. Warm or very warm in the sunnier spots. ' BBC specific areas: Fort William / Kendal / Betws-y-Coed / Aviemore / Skipton / Glossop (Peak) / Brecon / Milton Keynes.

Wasdaleweb weather - Always worth a loook just for the piccy from OM member Guy Newbold who lives and works in Wasdale. See also the live webcam pics of Scafell Pike and Great Gable. The Wasdaleweb Webcam now has a flash new camera for higher quality images and they looks great plus there's now a new Scafell Pike web cam. Scottish Avalanche Information Service - The good old Avalanche Information Service has gone into hibernation for the summer now that winter's over, the birds are singing, spring is - allegedly - in the air and all that palaver. Can rain or midges avalanche? Nope...

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 much rain... ... except in western Scotland, plus cloudy generally on the western side of the UK. Verdict Sun bathers might be whingeing, but it's not a bad weekend. Okay, it'll be a bit cloudy on the western side of the UK with some rain in Scotland, but it's getting warmer and generally it'll be nice and dry plus not too hot on the tops. Enjoy :-) 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.