Weekend Mountain Weather Outlook

Weekend Weather 20-21 January, 2007

Fact of the Week! Most rain ever to fall in one hour: 38.1mm on 26th November 1970 at Barst on Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

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: 'Friday brings a brief respite for all areas, however into Saturday and yet another deep area of low pressure with plenty of rain sweeps in from the East. Once again, coastal and higher regions will see winds of up to 70mph with 40-50mph inland. However, this system will be the last Atlantic storm for a time, because behind this system, the weather will turn much colder.' 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: Frequent snow showers throughout Saturday on the Cumbrian fells and Scotland, with possible white out conditions in the afternoon. Regular rainfall in more southerly areas, becoming less frequent on Sunday. Winds could gust up to 95 mph at the start of the weekend, causing severe windchill on higher ground. 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: 'Keen winds will develop once again. Rain will affect most areas initially but the south and east should become dry with sunny spells. Northern and western areas will have frequent, heavy and at times wintry showers.' Sunday: 'Winds will be a little lighter for the second half of the weekend but it will remain breezy with plenty of showers being carried into the north and west. Some of the showers will turn wintry in the north. Feeling colder.' 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: 'Windy, risk of gales across N.Ireland, Scotland, Wales and northwest England. Rain clearing southeastwards with sunshine and showers following, most frequent Scotland, N.Ireland, Wales and England. Wintry showers in north.' Sunday to Tuesday: 'Becoming noticeably colder, especially from Monday. Wintry showers will affect many places, mostly in the north and west on Sunday but then northern and eastern places from Monday.' 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: Considerable risk of avalanches (category 3) particularly on northern and eastern slopes owing to an accumulation of unstable patches of windslab. Snow showers will continue through the day on higher slopes.

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 ;-)

Colder weather is finally on the way:-)
Wet and windy with severe windchill higher up.

Verdict Another patchy weekend, with regular showers (snowfall in Cumbria and Scotland) on Saturday, easing off a little on Sunday. This week's gales will persist into the early part of the weekend as well, so tie your hats on tight and be prepared for severe wind chill higher up.

The good news is that this could be the last wet and windy weekend for a while, as there's a spell of more settled, and much colder, weather on the way. Could winter finally be threatening an appearance? About time too:-).