Days Out and Walking Holidays in Cornwall

Weather predicting. Art or luck?

Posted in blog

  on Sunday, 16 October 2011 10:01

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Walking in bad weather is better than sitting in an office in good weather.

Bad weather still means good walking; it’s just that great weather usually means great walking. So the game to be played with Mother Nature is how to be walking in good weather all week.

When mist and fog envelope the bays and headlands further up and down the coast from where you are standing in clear visibility one can be tempted to entertain smugness but pride comes before a fall so let it be fleeting.

With forecasts ranging from calm to indifferent via murky and difficult to predict locally I have to rely on a variety of well-used plans. These include the website Magic Seaweed which has the pressure charts and incoming rain bands for the coming 168 hours, plus the Met Office with the five day forecast and symbols from its 13 areas of West Cornwall starting with the weather for my home area of Falmouth. Plus don’t forget wind direction; when there is a full blown westerly, head for the East coast of the landscape. A southerly? Well, head to the north coast.

With the three guests care of Adventureline; Tom and Pat from the USA and Adrienne from Australia we set off dodging the mist and rain that became a permanent fixture of early morning St Agnes. In short, the other guests of the hotels they were staying at didn’t believe the evening stories of sunshine, warmth and lack of wind. As they say on certain British TV adverts, Simples. With north winds and the mist and fog dominating the weather, for the first few days we went to the Lizard peninsula and the Helford river heading to Holywell bay and Zennor in Penwith for the following two days and returning to the jewel in the Lizard crown, Kynance Cove on the last day.

Cornwall is renowned for its microclimates. This extends to weather on a daily basis. Be warned and more importantly be armed with as many forecasting tools as possible. So don’t discount using magic seaweed, pine cones and tea leaves to predict your weather. My favourite and more accurate tool is using the following method. Stick head out of car and look at the sky! Happy weather watching folks.

Check the walkitcornwall facebook page for larger versions of the photos.