The weather is back to normal

June 30, 2008 on 10:00 pm | In Sea Kayaking |

The fantastic run of sun has come to an end, we are back to weather systems scurrying through with the attendant fronts. Although it has the downside of some wet stuff falling from the sky there is the stunning cloudscapes which come through the sunshine and showers. I am also reminded we live in the land of rainbows.

I have a couple of days inside as I am doing a wilderness first aid course and I am looking forwards to learning some new stuff, vacuum splints and oxygen, great for the hangover I hear.

I have a weekend of paddling in prospect with clients flying in on Thursday for a trip out into the wilds. I am just going to look at the forecast and see what is in prospect.

There are a variety of places we look for our weather; I usually start with the met office and the inshore forecast and the European pressure forecast. This I follow with a look at Magic Seaweed which gives me an idea of the swell (it is a forecast for surfers, then I wake up Ugrib which is a global forecasting system, after you have downloaded the piece fo software, you highlight the area you want the forecast for and it gives you the pressure, wind speed and precipitation and so far we have found it reasonably accurate when stirred in with the other forecasts.

I might also look at wind guru/wind map which gives a good idea of the wind in Stornoway.

So good luck forecasting

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
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