This week's weather
Post categories: weather
| 15:46 UK time, Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Yesterday I was in Llanberis and took the steam train to the top of Snowdon. The café on the summit, Hafod Eryri, is opening much earlier than usual this year because of a lack of snow!
The weather on Snowdon is notoriously changeable and sometimes severe with hurricane force winds, blizzards and plenty of rain. 5000mm, 200 inches or 16 feet of rain falls on average every year and snow can lie on the summit until early summer.
This time last year there were still snowdrifts on the top and conditions were even more extreme last December which was the coldest December for at least 100 years.
Snow and ice prevents trains from travelling to the summit until May. However, the summit has been relatively free of snow since last Christmas and so they are hoping to be able to open the café next weekend.
This will be only the third time since 1950 that the Snowdon Summit Visitor Centre will be open in time for Easter!
We've had some great walking weather recently. Last weekend was the warmest of the year so far with temperatures in Porthmadog soaring to 22 Celsius, 72 Fahrenheit. The average maximum temperature for April is about 12 Celsius.
But since then it has turned much cooler. We've all enjoyed some fine weather and sunshine today but it's all change tomorrow when a trough of low pressure looks set to bring us more cloud, some rain and hill fog as well. It will also be breezy on high ground and on exposed coasts in the west and cold with temperatures only reaching 8 or 9 Celsius.
Thursday and Friday will be drier. A few spots of light rain or drizzle are likely in places, the odd afternoon shower.
Plenty of cloud but the sun should break through in places and it will feel a little warmer with lighter winds.
Comments Post your comment