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We went to Devon this past weekend with forecasted gales - even had a fisherman warn us it would be terrible. An occasional sway of the fibreglass pole a couple of times on Friday or Saturday nights was all we had when it was forecasted to be at its worst. On Sunday night we were on an exposed Dartmoor campsite (rare for us not having a sheltered site) with side and rear on blustery gale force winds and heavy rain. The flysheet was blown in a bit at the rear and I stayed awake for a while to see how the tent performed - Vango Kairos 400 (we were touring) - but she stood firm and I relaxed and went to sleep. The OH and our 4 year old fell asleep straight away. Just in case, we double rock pegged on the windward side, but it wasn't the nightmare we were expecting from the forecast.

Follow the pitching advise and keep the tent doors shut so it doesn't become a kite. Get all poles, guyropes and good pegs ready for where they'll be needed. Have several hammers so you don't have to wait for someone to come and peg and once its up you'll have a much more solid construction. Toddlers will take any fear from you, so if you are calm they will be. Best to keep them out of the tent until its fully secured. There is always the car or the toilet block if the weather does turn out as bad as predicted. Forecasts can be very wrong though and you could get completely the opposite weather and miss-out by cancelling.

glad you still went and are having a good time, if we all took too much notice of weather forecasts we would never go

Angie

We are at selby now and the weather is ok (12.40) pm its cloudy but fine and little or no wind we will see how we go on

Iv been sailing the North Sea for years and try not to risk getting stuck out in bad weather. I only use short range forcasts as I find the long range forcast too unreliable.