Weekend Weather Outlook

Weekend Weather 2nd-3trd April '05 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 for a selection of hill cams. And whatever you do, have a good one. Metcheck for good overviews as well as a mountain forecast that allows you to select indidual peaks throughout the UK with a 72-hour graphic summary of conditions hour by hour plus a load of other interesting stuff. 'Yuk! The current British weather is enough to make even the most hardened outdoor person consider a summer beach holiday this year,' they say, charmingly. They also reckon that summer is going to be slow coming on with no early heat waves this year. Something to do with all that snow melt and the Azores high, so you can, apparently expect a wet April and a disappointing May. Nice... Mountain Weather Information Service has a great downloadable mountain-specific forecast for Eastern and Western Highlands, Peak District and Lakes in PDF format. Plus a Snowdonia forecast. The Peak and Snowdonia forecasts are now restricted to weekend forecasts and go ou ton Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Check specific forecasts. Dryish on Saturday, more likely to be rain on Sunday with wintry showers and snow possible on Scottish hills. Not warm on the tops with some buffeting from the winds up high in the Lakes and Scotland. Cold and unsettled next week with showers, especially in Scotland where there will be new snow on high ground.

Met Office For localised five-day forecasts use this page. Saturday ' Rain over northern areas c learing. Otherwise dry with sunny spells after a grey start and becoming pleasantly warm. ' Sunday Rain likely north of the border and in teh SW elsewhere looks dry with sunny spells. Warm again except in the far north. Welsh Mountain Forecasts Useful online forecasts covering the National Park areas of Snowdonia - and the Brecon Beacons.

BBC Weather Site uses Met Office data, but more user friendly. Saturday ''Rain over Northern Ireland and Scotland dying out, otherwise dry with sunny spells after a grey, mistly start, and becoming pleasantly warm. Cooler near windward coasts. " Sunday 'Dry start. Sunshine once mist clears. Rain for Scotland in morning then Wales, north and west England in the afternoon. Some sharp showers for the rest of England. Warm but turning cooler in the northwest later. ' 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 flashy new camera for higher quality images and they looks great plus there's now a new Scafell Pike web cam, which is currently not working...

Scottish Avalanche Information Service - The avalanche forecast and snow conditions reports are back covering five main Scottish winter climbing areas. You should always check the latest report before heading out. Still running but not much snow and ice left except for very high up. Still some snow on Cairngorm plateau for example.

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... Just updated with several new cams and fixed links.

Warm both days, mainly dry on Saturday. Some rain muscling in on Sunday. Verdict It'll be mild, even warm in the valleys, but cooler on the tops, so don't go underprepared. In the Lakes and Scotland, blustery winds will also make things feel cooler up high. Rain appearing on Sunday as a prelude to what the MWIS reckons is going be be a pretty poor period next week. 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.