Weekend Weather Outlook

Weekend Weather 2nd - 4th June '06

Fact of the Week! The total amount of fossil fuel used by humans since the start of civilization contains less energy than 30 days of sunshine.

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 of localised areas based on a number of meteorological models. Loads of quirky options for stuff like rain forecasts plus offbeat, leftfield weather generalisations. Get stuck in and have a browse, there's a lot on this site. Metcheck has a new Google Earth fusion thing, unfortunately it's only available to premium members, but it sounds good anyway. The weekend's weather will improve on recent unstable conditions, although there'll still be plenty of fluctuations. Most places will see a combination of sunshine and showers, the latter being potentially quite heavy in the north. Temperatures will be quite warm further south, climbing into the mid-20s, but the north will stay cooler than average for the time of year. You can check out individual areas or dig a bit deeper for the Mountain Forecast page or the Climbing Forecast page. The Seven-Day Charts give a handy overview too.

Mountain Weather Information Service has great downloadable mountain-specific forecasts for NW, W and SE Highlands, Cairngorms, Southern Uplands, Peak District and Lakes in PDF format. Plus a Snowdonia forecast. The Peak and Snowdonia forecasts are now restricted to weekend forecasts and go out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Worth wading through the increasingly cluttered lay-out. Sunshine and showers everywhere, with more of the sunshine side of the equation further south and on the coast. Visibility could be poor in the Highlands, with about 20% chance of cloud-free summits, increasing to 70% in the Lakes and Snowdonia, and good visibility in the Peaks. The sunshine will increase towards evening on most days and in most places, so if the morning doesn't look too promising, it's worth hanging around for the cloud to clear. Check individual forecasts for specific details. Arguably the best mountain-specific forecast out there by a way.

BBC Weather Site uses Met Office data, but more user friendly. Just been revamped for the summer, weird stuff but easy access to a lot more information including rain forecasts, cloud, wind, temperature, visibility etc. Nice. Localised forecasts accessible from the same page. Saturday 'Rather cloudy with a scattering of showers. Warm sunshine developing in Southeast England and perhaps southern Scotland.' Sunday 'Mostly cloudy in Northeast Scotland with rain at times. Bright or sunny intervals elsewhere, but a few showers will develop.' BBC specific areas: Fort William / Kendal / Betws-y-Coed / Aviemore / Skipton / Glossop (Peak) / Brecon / Milton Keynes.

Met Office For localised five-day forecasts use this page. See weather for the next week. Saturday 'Occasional rain for Scotland, parts of England and Wales. Warm in the southeast.' Sunday 'Rather changeable weather is expected with showers or longer spells of rain, especially in the north and east.' Welsh Mountain Forecasts Useful online forecasts covering the National Park areas of Snowdonia - and the Brecon Beacons.

Scottish Avalanche Information Service - The last daily avalanche forecast for the season has been and gone. In the winter there are avalanche and climbing condition reports for five major Scottish climbing areas - Lochaber, northern and southern Cairngorms, Glencoe and Creag Meagaidh. But we don't want to think about that for a while yet ...

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. We'll overhaul this page shortly as some of the links aren't functioning or the cameras have disappeared - nicked? You have to hope not ;-)

Sunshine everywhere ...
... and showers everywhere, especially in the north.

Verdict A mixed bag this weekend, with the weather demanding the use of both waterproofs and suncream. Most places will see patches of sunshine and showers, although the south will have more than its fair share of the sun, while the north draws the short straw and languishes under more than its fair share of showers. Still, not a bad weekend on the whole, and quite a warm one if you don't head too far north.

Have a good one.