Strong winds
Comments
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Never seen a touring caravan blown over but have been on a mixed static and touring site where statics were torn from their chain down points and blown over. We are on Wirral country park where those of us who are familiar with the site have taken down our
awnings as a precaution. We were here twice last year when the wind was strong enough to demolish nearly all the awning even the wardens which do not face the prevailing wind. The damage caused was substantial with many beyond repair and also some pole damage
to vans. One brand new air awning was ripped apart. Also remember our first National at Harewood House in 1986 where we were on a slope facing the wind and felt the front end lift more than once in the gusts. Take care everyone0 -
I hope the forecasters are being a bit over cautious. I'm towing the caravan from Bolton to North Devon tomorrow.
Take care, hope you get there safely.
Thanks Nellie. I'll be taking it easy with a few stops. It's just me and the 6 year old granddaughter and I can't let her down.
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Can i ask if caravans actually get blown over when people are asleep in them ????
We have experienced 60 to 70 mph winds on the coast at Durness in the NW of Scotland. The van was shaken about quite significantly and it was moderately frightening. However, ours and the other vans were still on site in the morning. I would not want to
go a lot higher though.Thankfully winds that high are not too common. It is probably 35 years ago when we were in a simple trailer tent on a hill site overlooking the Abersoch area. With a heavy storm forecast I angled the trailer to suit and put on the large awnng to face the
winds. I put a rope over the end of the awning an fixed to two borrowed lamping irons. Car parked in front of that. What followed was a really wild night. Next morning their were a few awnings and tents pretty much deatroyed. One caravan had a destroyed awning
but the wning rail had held but unfortunatelt the outer aluninium that it was attached to had opemed up like a rolled sardine can lid. Still in high winds we towed across to the old CC site at Coed Helen near Caernarvon. Still high winds but the site was so
sheltered tha tthe leaves o the trees barely fluttered0 -
Never seen a touring caravan blown over but have been on a mixed static and touring site where statics were torn from their chain down points and blown over. We are on Wirral country park where those of us who are familiar with the site have taken down our
awnings as a precaution. We were here twice last year when the wind was strong enough to demolish nearly all the awning even the wardens which do not face the prevailing wind. The damage caused was substantial with many beyond repair and also some pole damage
to vans. One brand new air awning was ripped apart. Also remember our first National at Harewood House in 1986 where we were on a slope facing the wind and felt the front end lift more than once in the gusts. Take care everyoneSome 45 years ago when married with a young baby I bought a static van as I was still in college with my bank psying for me
by way
of a loan. The tie down chains cast into the concrete base where very substantial.0 -
Getting a bit blustery here already. Going to blow a gooden tomorrow. The trouble with high winds this time of the year is the trees are in full leaf, so bring a few winds down.
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A few years back I was at Littlehampton CC site and, even with the car parked close up on the windward site, the van was rocking. Stop sniggering at the back.
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I hope the forecasters are being a bit over cautious. I'm towing the caravan from Bolton to North Devon tomorrow.
Take care, hope you get there safely.
Write your comments here...As nellie says, take care. I know that you are having a holliday and most likely booked in somewhere but it would be an awful shame if the weather got the better of you and caused you some damage in any way. Hope all is ok. Best
wish's.0 -
Never underestimate the power of wind!!
Write your comments here...Especially a dog's wind!
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Force 9 gusting 10 on an exposed site high above the North Sea coast one easter break was the scariest we have had. No sleep at all as we seriously thought the van was going over. Not safe to tow it anywhere either so a bit stuck. Not nice at all.
Hope everyone is safe today
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A few years back I was at Littlehampton CC site and, even with the car parked close up on the windward site, the van was rocking. Stop sniggering at the back.
Write your comments here...No sniggering here CY. Probably somebody was having a shower in the van and dropped the soap and had to bend down to pick it up.....
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Probably somebody was having a shower in the van and dropped the soap and had to bend down to pick it up.....
Quite a commonly occuring occasion for a source of wind.
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The weather warning is still in place but the forecast now shows nothing worse than winds of 18mph with rain for our part of Cornwall. The reality is that it's a bit breezy and we've had some showers.
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Looks like another false alarm by the Met Office.
A more reliable forecast was giving winds of 40kts at 3,000 ft altitude.....I suspect that they translated that into a forecast of high winds at surface level.
They are becoming the boy who cried Wolf too often.....
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If you reliedbon the weather forecast you would go nowhere.It will be a bit windier for Summer, but not uncommon in winter.Do we put our vans away.?
That is one of the nice things about being retired and relatively accurate 3 to 5 day forcasts. This combined with the fact availability is easier in winter, means we just go a day or so earlier, or book to stay another day, if high winds are forcast.
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They are becoming the boy who cried Wolf too often.....
I can't agree with you Ian. In general they do a very good job. Unfortunately people always remember when it was wrong, such as the non hurricane that cause devastation. Personally I prefer them to work on the side of caution.
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I find the forecasts by both the Meteo group via the "Weatherpro App" and "Weather Underground" app to be far more accurate and reliable than those currently provided by the Met office.
UPDATE - Other half has just told me the BBC have sacked the met office and are turning to the Meteo Group forecasts in future.
So there you go, the Met Office have the biggest and most powerful weather computer there is and cannot get it right often enough.
Perhaps they should have employed better weather forecasters instead of IT "experts"
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I can never work out why you can watch a forecast following national news and then one following local news and saying two completely different things for the same area.
The one thing I have found reasonably accurate is the BBC weather app which is often very different from the TV forecast.
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Winds on the strong side up here. OH has just set off up North, choosing his route carefully, mainly to avoid traffic. Top of Sutton Bank will be gale force! He got a cancellation on a Club Site yesterday, thank you to whoever cancelled!
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Sorry to disagree with you Steve, but the forecasts are seldom right (and certainly not the BBC ones).
I would prefer accuracy, rather than working on the side of caution.
Write your comments here... Not sure if it's possible to be 100%accurate with weather.
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I can never work out why you can watch a forecast following national news and then one following local news and saying two completely different things for the same area.
The one thing I have found reasonably accurate is the BBC weather app which is often very different from the TV forecast.
Try the "Weather Pro" App M.
It's very accurate to the point that I have paid extra for the enhanced version that has all kinds of enhanced weather related goodies included. It has hour by hour forecasts that (for example) pinpointed the time of the (several) seperate rain showers today spot on.
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Looks like another false alarm by the Met Office.
A more reliable forecast was giving winds of 40kts at 3,000 ft altitude.....I suspect that they translated that into a forecast of high winds at surface level.
It's blowing 40 knots at sea level here, although the sea isn't very level.
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Why does the weather forecast always start by telling you what as already happened ? is it so they get part of the forecast correct ?
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absolutely
