Weather
Richards Mountain Pages

If you like a bit of weather the British mountains are certainly the place to go. The warm wet winds of the Atlantic blow straight into the West coast and pile up against the peaks. Some parts get as much rain as a rainforest. Having put you off, I should say that there are plenty of days when it doesn't rain, particularly if you pick the drier months of April, May and September to visit.

Rainbow Effects
If you are lucky enough to find yourself above a bank of hillfog, with a bright sun behind you, you may witness a Brockenspectre. These rare treats are caused by diffraction of sunlight through the cloud, causing a rainbow halo to appear around the shadow of the observer. These are most often seen from a plane, where the halo appears around the shadow of the whole plane, or perhaps just the part where you are viewing from. However the effect is much weirder from a mountain, as you get a peculiar shadow with long arms and legs (like a character from 'The Wicker Man'). The example I have here lacks that, but does have a good halo.

Even normal rainbows can look different in the mountains. The one shown at the top of the page appeared to be below me as I looked down fom Ben Attow in Glen Affric.

At sunset rainbows lose their colours one by one until just the red is left. As far as I am aware it has no name, so I shall call it a 'redbow'. I have seen this effect three times now, and once tried to get a picture. Due to layering in the cloud it even appeared disjointed. Unfortunately it was too faint to scan in.

Cloud Effects
As the rain clears away and the clouds start to break the mountain peaks start to reveal themselves. Sometimes the break can last for just a few seconds, revealing just a glimpse of a spectacular peak surrounded by cloud. The picture above was taken in a brief thirty second window in an otherwise dreary day on Skye. But by far the most spectacular cloud effect I've seen was from a beach on Harris, watching the clouds retreat through the hills as though being sucked up by an unseen hoover.

If it happens to be foggy at ground level, there is a pretty good chance that as you climb your hill or mountain you will punch through to a bright day with a cobalt blue sky, hot sun, and a blanket of fluffy white stuff packed around the lower peaks. These days are great for photography, but never seem to happen often enough. If you position yourself well you may even get to see a Brockenspectre (see picture near the top of the page).

During my first rip into Glen Affric, I climbed a mountain just as the mist from the glen did likewise. We met near the summit. For a few minutes I was bathed in a warm steam - an outdoor sauna. It made a change from the usual cold damp mists.

You may think that jet vapour trails are rather dull and boring, and in most cases I would agree with you, but twice I have witrnessed remarkable effects from their formation. The first was a beautiful sunrise seen from my tent high up in the Brecon Beacons. Pink trails streaked across a pastel blue sky, complementing the darker mists below. Unfortunately I was not carrying my camera. The second time, I watched as a solitary trail drifted across a clear blue sky, casting a shadow that crept across the mountains.

Now if you see a cloud like the one on the left here it is time to get off the mountain. At best it is a heavy shower (which is not particularly pleasant anyway), but also quite possibly a storm. If metal things about your person start humming at something like a mains frequency, it is definitely a storm, and you are in immediate danger of being struck. I'm glad to say that such circumstances are not frequent. My coat has hummed only once (though if you mean hum as in pong, thats a different matter) - and that was on Cadair Idris in a snowstorm - challenging conditions to be out in in the first place.



The clouds above right are high altitude cirrus. They usually indicate that a front is coming. On average you can expect it to rain about six hours later and last for four hours (hence the saying 'rain before seven, clear by eleven'). However that only works if it is a solitary front. As well as these 'mares tales', you might also see a hazy veil crossing the sky, bringing thickening cloud, or in mountain regions you may get lens shaped clouds over or around the higher peaks. These all indicate rain to come.

Other Effects
Perhaps the most stunning effect I have witnessed was the eclipse of the sun back in August 1999. My chosen vantage pointed was cloudy, but it proved to be a good choice. I stood at Portland Bill, just on the edge of the darkest part, and watched stunned as a dark ball from across the sea rolled over the clouds, hovered for maybe ten seconds, and then rolled off across the sea on the other side of the Bill. I have pictures, but they don't show much apart from darkness. Like a fine painting, an eclipse is something you really have to see for yourself.

I have also witnessed the tail end of an annular eclipse over the North West Highlands in 2003. Had it not been for a bank of mist obscuring my prefered viewpoint, I would have been high enough to see the full spectacle. Instead I had to settle for a golden crescent rising over the horizon.
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