Outdoor weather tips

Wind, storm

Wind can be uncomfortable when we sleep.  It cools us, makes it difficult to set up a tarp and wakes us up at night. 

The best sleeping places in windy nights:

• Caves (check if stones can fall from top)
• Roofs, houses (check if the roof is stable)
• Young forest

Why the forest must be young? If we sleep under an old tree during a storm, falling branches can endanger us. The young trees are less prone to falling over, and since their branches are very deep, they offer some wind protection.  If the branches are too low, we tie them up with our strings so that we can lie down under them.  And so it should also be possible to put up a tarp in case it might rain.

Often we find a hut, a house or a ruin that is not in danger of collapsing during a storm.  With all our love for nature, we are happy to have a protection in a storm.  Of course we shouldn't sleep next to a house with roof tiles during a storm;  the roof tiles could kill us.

My outdoor experiences with heavy wind: 

• Apr 2023, Tarifa Walk: too much wind at Tarifa. We went by bus some km inland and continue hiking there.
• Nov 2022, Lucero Walk, we slept in a cave, but didn't reach the summit of Lucero, because of the strong cold wind.
• Apr 2010, Rawfood Gathering
• Oct 2008, Bicycle tour Germany - Spain

Rain

The benefits of sleeping under a tree:

• It protects from dew moisture
• If it rains unexpectedly, we have time to set up a rain shelter, because the tree keeps the first drops away
• The tree makes it easier to set up a tarp
• A young forest protects us from the wind

A poncho tarp (see Equipment) that also protects us during the day when hiking saves a lot of weight, but in return we get a few splashes in heavy rain. However, according to my many years of outdoor experience, I think we can live with that. We very rarely experience heavy rain on our walkabouts. But we have to carry our luggage on our backs every day.

Measures to take in case of heavy rain:

• Pay attention to where the water flows; don't lie in a water gutter.
• If we sleep under a tarp, set it up as low as possible.
• If splashes of water reach us, lay on the edge of the sleeping mat and hold the other edge up so that the sleeping mat on the side protects you from the rain; check whether water flows into the sleeping area.
• If the water flows into the sleeping area, you have to react quickly: crawl out of the sleeping bag, take the sleeping bag in your lap, crouch down under the tarp, protect the rest of the luggage from the water.
• And then not to worry, but to enjoy this wonderful natural spectacle!

My outdoor experiences with heavy rain:

• Oct 2005, Hike Germany - Spain, several nights, flood on 13 Oct 2005
• Feb 2016, Rawfood Walkabout, with children

Dew moisture

Imagine you don't see any clouds in the sky in the evening, there's no wind, the sun is setting and you go to sleep in a meadow - and yet you wake up the next morning in a soaking wet sleeping bag! This can certainly happen, because dew moisture is likely when:

• the sky is cloudless
• the wind is calm
• it gets cool at night
• it has rained recently
• there is a river or body of water nearby
• we sleep in the open air - under a dense tree dew only occurs in fog

In our area, however, it is so dry that we rarely experience dew. We therefore often sleep under the open sky without a tree.

Cold

You can find easily safety tips for hiking in the cold.  Here are a few tips for
finding a warm place to pause and sleep:

If there is wind or dew, we look for a flat place under a safe tree in a forest.  There we have less wind and dew (see above) - both of which can cool us down considerably.

If there is no wind or dew: Basically, the well-known rule applies: The higher we climb a mountain, the colder it gets - about 0.6°C per 100m.  On the other hand, cold air sinks because it is heavier than warm air: it flows down the mountain from the mountain top - at the lowest points, i.e. in the river bed.  It warms up a bit, but remains colder than the surrounding air and therefore continues to flow down the river bed.  That is why it is usually significantly warmer on a small hill (about 5 degrees) than at the bottom of the valley bed.  So we find the warmest place to sleep on a small hill - the cold air that flows down the mountain flows past us.  If the sun shines during the day, it is warmer on a southern slope than on a northern slope;  the rock retains the heat of the sun.  An exception is the inversion weather situation: In this weather situation, it is warmer further up in the mountains than down in the valley.

Clothes: Woolen and silk clothing as well as clothing made from special synthetic fibers (sports shop; however, quite expensive) warms better than cotton clothing.  If we wear both, wear the wool or silk clothing next to the skin if possible. Nuts, seeds, wild plants, ginger and hot spices warm us from the inside.

Accept the cold;  it doesn't make us sick if we live healthy, and it toughens us up.

My outdoor experiences with the cold: 

• Apr 2012, Rawefood Gathering, Sierra de Cazorla, we camped in the snow!
• Dec 2016, Rawfood Walkabout, we slept over the clouds...

Heat

Get wet when it's hot! "It's obvious", you might think. But on the road we often forget this simple method. So whenever we find water on the road, we take the opportunity: we wet our clothes and hair. Especially when cycling, the evaporation caused by the airstream cools you down considerably, but it also helps when hiking. 

Look for a cool place: What we said about the cold also applies to the heat - of course, we choose the cooler places: High up in the mountains, down in the valley bed, by a river or on the coast where we can get wet at any time.

Drinking water: In summer we have to make sure that we have enough drinking water in our luggage. Now we have the problem that in rare cases it can happen that a water source is dry, or we don't reach a source in time. But there is an emergency solution: The strongest among us goes alone without luggage to the nearest spring and brings water while the others lie down in the shade.

My outdoor experiences with heat: Since 2017 we have done at least one outdoor event every summer (see events or archive). It was hot at times but the heat was never a real problem as we were either hiking along a river, along beaches or high in the mountains. In some cases we ran out of water. But we never had to use the emergency solution mentioned above.

Thunderstorm

I never got in a dangerous thunder storm. It happens rarely. Nevertheless, it is good to know what to do in a thunderstorm. Read about it in extern pages, for instance:
What to do if you’re caught in a mountain storm
In German: Verhalten-bei-gewitter