What will the weather be like in the mountains?

Knowing what the weather’s doing on your mountain day is key to making sure you’re properly prepared and get the most out of the experience. Having the wrong gear for the weather conditions can turn a lovely day out in to a nightmare.

BEWARE of using regular weather apps on your smart phone …They’ll only be able to tell you what conditions are like at your start point which can often be at or close to sea level. Typically, temperatures drop around 1°C for every 100m you climb. So as an example the village of Llanberis lies at around 100m above sea level and the summit of Snowdon is at 1085m so you would expect it to be around 10°C colder at the top and that’s before you take into account wind chill and other factors.

Fortunately, there are two great online resources for mountain weather forecast in the UK both of which are easy to use, work well on a smart phone’s web browser and don’t cost a penny.


Met Office Mountain Weather Forecasts
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/mountain/snowdonia

The UK’s Met Office has been predicting the weather for over 150 years and provides twice-daily mountain forecasts for our most popular mountain areas.

mountain-weather-forecasts

Mountain Weather Information Service
https://www.mwis.org.uk/forecasts/english-and-welsh/snowdonia-national-park

​MWIS forecasts contain detailed and accessible information aimed at both novice and experienced mountain users and cover ten upland regions across the country.