Weekend Mountain Weather Outlook

Weekend Weather 13-14 January, 2007

Fact of the Week! The windiest place on Earth is Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica where winds of 200mph have been recorded.

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. They say: 'During Saturday, yet another buckling frontal system develops and pushes in from the West. We're keeping our eye on this little fella as it could bring well over an inch of additional rain to already saturated areas of the North-West as well as increasing wind speeds quickly along its Southern flank. 'Into Sunday and the weather calms down somewhat, but into the new week and once again more wet and windy weather waiting in the wings.' 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. Best mountain weather forecast we know of. Forecast: Strong south westerly winds across the UK will create severe wind chill: -1C at 900m in the Highlands will feel like -17, while temperatures could feel as low as -13C in Cumbria and even the 8C on the High Peak will seem like -8C. Gusts of up to 70mph in the Lakes make walking conditions difficult and visibility will be poor all weekend. Light rainfall on Saturday morning is set to intensify as the day goes on, and could turn to snow in the Lakes and Scotland on Sunday. 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. If you want video, check out the BBC WEATHER PLAYER with a selection of forecasts. They say a cloudy start on Saturday, brightening later on. Plus lots of grey skies on Sunday. Saturday: 'A spell of rain in Scotland and northern Ireland. Later in the day the rain will clear away into England and Wales where it will remain windy and mild.' Sunday: 'A bright and breezy day with sunny spells. Feeling cooler everywhere. There may be a few showers, especially in Scotland.' BBC specific areas: Fort William / Kendal / Betws-y-Coed / Aviemore / Skipton / Glossop (Peak) / Brecon / Milton Keynes.

Met Office . See weather for the next week. Saturday: 'Some heavy, persistent rain over Scotland and Northern Ireland, with some snow over the higher Scottish hills. Mostly cloudy over England and Wales with a little rain or drizzle locally.' Sunday to Tuesday: 'Generally dry and bright on Sunday, although showers may affect parts of Wales and Scotland. Wet and windy over northwestern UK on Monday. Plenty of dry, bright weather on Tuesday.' Welsh Mountain Forecasts Useful online forecasts covering the National Park areas of Snowdonia - and the Brecon Beacons.

Scottish Avalanche Information Service - Daily avalanche forecasts are back for Lochaber and the northern Gorms. Friday's forecast: "Snow will continue to fall overnight on very strong North-Westerly backing South-Easterly winds. This snow will quickly turn to heavy rain in the early morning as temperatures rise. Avalanches will occur on many aspects above 750 metres. Snowpack instability will be most prominent during the temperature rise. The avalanche hazard will be High (Category 4)."

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 ;-)

Saturday may get the odd sunny spell.
Generally wet and windy, with low visibility and serious windchill factor high up.

Verdict This weekend's looking all too familiar, with another round of showers lined up for Saturday and snowflakes flying on the higher fells on Sunday. Visibility won't be that great either, except for a few clear patches early in the weekend. To cap it all, windchill will give us the kinds of temperatures manufacturers of down, fleece and all things cosy dream about.

Wrap up warm, remember your compass, and have a good one.