Weekend Mountain Weather Outlook

Weekend Weather 10-11 March, 2007

Fact of the Week! Not including wind-driven rain, raindrops fall between 7 and 18 miles per hour (3 and 8 meters per second) in still air. The range in speed depends on the the size of the raindrop.

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: 'Anywhere south of a line from approximately South Wales to Birmingham to the Wash will see a very good weekend indeed, mostly dry, and with some good bright or sunny spells. By Sunday, maximum temperatures could be approaching 16C - the warmest day of the year so far. 'Across Scotland, Ireland and eventually Northern England a markedly different weekend is on the cards. Low cloud and hill fog will be quite extensive. Strong to possible gale force winds are also expected across Northwestern parts of the UK throughout the weekend.' 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: Poor visibility, persistent rainfall, and strong gusts of wind will persist across Northern England, Northern Wales, and Scotland for much of the weekend. Further south, Saturday could still be rather overcast but the skies will clear as the weekend progresses, with temperatures rising considerably 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: 'Wet and windy for N Ireland, Scotland, N England and Wales. Elsewhere it should be dry with some bright spells, the best of the sunshine the further south and east you go.' Sunday: 'Another windy day for Scotland and N Ireland but brighter than Saturday. Wet and windy for N England and Wales. Elsewhere some dry and brighter spells, sunniest in southeast England.' 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 with rain and drizzle across Scotland spreading to Northern Ireland and northern England. Most other places should be dry and mild with long sunny periods.' Sunday to Tuesday: 'Rain over Scotland and Northern Ireland moving slowly southeast and becoming light and patchy by the time it reaches southeast England late Monday. Sunshine and showers following.' 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 weakly-bonded windslab. Collapsing cornices, powder avalanches, and slab avalanches, as the rainfall turns to snow, are all possible hazards.

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 further south; some of the warmest weather this year.
Persistent rain and wind in northern areas.

Verdict It's all about latitude this weekend. Head North and you're in for a drenching; stay further south and some early clouds should soon blow over to leave the warmest weekend of the year. So, if you're going cragging in the Peaks, it's all sounding well and good, but if you've set your sights on a long hike in Scotland, the Lakes, or Snowdonia, you might not see all that much (and that's assuming you don't get blown over).

Basically, head south for the best weather. And those of you who are still wondering where winter's got to, we're sorry to announce that summer now looks to be on its way!