By: Blonde One
I’ve been on Dartmoor in all types of weather and very often it has started out doing one thing, only to change quite quickly to something else. A sunny start at the car park can fill you with optimism for a glorious day ahead, but don’t be fooled into leaving your waterproof coat and trousers in the boot. More often that not, you will return to the car at the end of the day in either mist or rain!
I always use the Met Office website to check the Dartmoor weather. You can select different location types but for a good picture of what Dartmoor’s hills will be like select ‘Mountain Summits’.
If I’m leading a group of students I will begin checking the weather several days before the trip, and keep checking every day to monitor the patterns. It’s incredible how the forecast can change over a period of a few days. If I’m going up on my own or with Blonde Two I will check the day before. The Met Office allows you to check the weather in each of the UK’s National Parks.
It’s important to remember to check what precipitation there will be, what the visibility will be like, what the ‘feel like’ temperature is and what the wind speed is. Even though you might feel an ok temperature at the bottom of a hill, remember that for every 100 meters that you climb the temperature will drop by 1˚. Factor that in, along with the increased wind speed at the top of a hill and you could soon be having an uncomfortable time.
If you prefer more of an overview of the weather for specific mountain regions (despite our lack of actual mountains this site works for Dartmoor) then we Blondes recommend Mountain Forecast. This is a great site that will find useful weather information for places near to your location and uses real-time information from users to great effect. We particularly like Mountain Forecast’s United Kingdom Mountain Weather map which allows the weather geek in you some fun as you scroll across several days and watch the isobars move. Another great feature of this site is that it gives you the freezing level so you know how high you have to climb if you want to find some of the white stuff.
My favourite Dartmoor weather is wind and rain. I love the power that Dartmoor has during this weather and how it makes me feel small and yet a bit powerful too. Don’t get me wrong I love Dartmoor in the sun, hail, snow too, but the wind and rain is my favourite weather.
Dartmoor is an amazing place in all weathers and is there to be enjoyed by everyone. Please make sure you do it safely. Check the weather and make sure you have the right kit.
Gimme fog. I’m very enthusiastic in fog. I know it’s weird as a wish, but fog is so mistical – and I use my word because “mystical” implies religion and spirits and wizards and the like, whereas “mistical” admits that mist itself is where the mistery lies (there I go again…). Dartmoor mist is a sorcery from the impish hand of Mother Nature. It’s a friendly test set as an education or a reminder. The mistery in it is that at first you believe you can’t see where you are – and yet you can. Mist always provides a glimpse of your immediate surroundings, simply doesn’t let you see where they are are in relation to anything else! You’re placed in a foggy bubble that moves with you, but you don’t know where to move it to unless you have a map and compass, know where you are to start with, and know where you want to go. Knowing where you are is always a good thing – you can’t easily work out how to get anywhere else if you don’t know where you’re starting from. That’s life. Secondly, you can never be sure what’s going to appear out of a Dartmoor mist – it could be the Hound of the Baskervilles if you place more belief in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle than in Mother Nature and are unfamiliar with Dartmoor mist, but those who know best will realise it’s more likely to bring a sheep, a tor, another person, or that river your hearing has become aware of. That’s another thing Dartmoor mist does – heightens your senses – gives you super-powers. Eyes see the change in contrast rather than search for colour, your ears bring in clues of what is to come (even the birds will stop singing to listen in fog), your tongue may taste nearby grass or peat or whether the mist is cold and sharp or warmer and sweet. Your nose will quickly pick up the unseen chimney nearby, or the cigarette. Your entire brain will be stimulated with the journey, deducing, planning and calculating rather than wandering elsewhere as you coast along on a normal day. That’s mistical. You will also realise the importance of the invisible magnetism which your senses no longer detect thanks to evolution, but a compass can – the wanderers magic wand. And when you use that magic wand and map to arrive out of the mist at a destination you aimed for, you’ll know you’ve conquered a challenge and think “Wow, that’s magic!”, but you really mean “mistical” – it just hasn’t reached the Oxford English Dictionary yet. Fog may not let you see very far, but it can bring other rewards I rather enjoy. Mind you, a clear warm day is nice too.
Love the rainbow – did you find the crock of gold?