Developing Your Hiking Skills - Weather Prediction
Your best assurance of safety is to check the weather forecasts before you leave home. Plan your route, your clothing and your trip according to the current weather forecasts.
However, as weather can change in an instant, it is helpful to be familiar with some basic knowledge about weather. This will help ensure that you are not putting yourself or your young hiking companion in a troublesome situation. Being caught in bad weather can result in a serious wilderness survival situation.
Accurate weather forecasting takes considerable time and research. However, there are some signs that you can pay attention to, to help you track impending changes in the weather.
Nature signs
- On a fine and clear day the smoke from the camp fire rises steadily. If it starts swirling and descending, the air pressure decreases and bad weather will be expected.
- As the pressure decreases, the dust particles in the air begin to settle to the ground and the air clears. Sound becomes sharper and things will smell stronger. That is why you think the air is clean and fresh, and bird songs and calls sound sharper before a rain.
Atmospheric Pressure
- Changing weather means changing air pressure. Decreasing air pressure indicates the approach of a low pressure area, which often brings clouds and precipitation. Increasing air pressure often means that a high pressure area is approaching, bringing a fine and clear day. If you know the changing air pressure you can learn how to predict weather. A barometer measures air pressure and is a well-known instrument to predict weather.
Clouds
- An ability to accurately read cloud formations is important when you want to understand how to predict weather. Clouds are classified into ten main types according to height and shape. Not all clouds bring rain and some are signs of fine weather. The basic cloud knowledge you need tells us that: on a fine, clear day the clouds are white and the higher the clouds, the finer the day. Storm clouds are generally black, low, and massed in large clusters and if wet weather is approaching the cloud will form a greyish veil.
Red Sky
- At dusk, a red sky indicates that next day probably will be a dry and fine day. This is due to the sun shining through dust particles being pushed ahead of a high pressure system bringing in dry air.
- A red sky at dawn often means that an approaching low pressure system is bringing in a lot of moisture in the air. This is a fair indication that a storm is approaching.
- Do not confuse a red sky in the morning with a red sun in the morning. If the sun itself is red and the sky is a normal color, the day will be fair. Remember the old rhyme: "Red sky at night, sailors delight, Red sky at morning, sailors take warning."
How animals predict the weather
- Animals sense the movements in air pressure that preced all weather changes. Insect-eating birds, such as swallows, have a tendency to fly much lower to the ground right before a rain.
