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Vango used to say it wouldn't guarantee its leisure tents in winds of over 30mph. (They quietly removed this clause after a while as people were saying their tents must be rubbish then, because other manufacturers weren't so upfront. What price honesty?)

Really, it's not just the forecast wind speeds that count. It's how well you pitch your tent, in what shelter, the grippyness of the ground, the pegs you use,  how good you are at adding emergency guylines and bracing straps when it's obvious you're heading into trouble etc. I think Hubby and I are pretty good at all the above but even we can't set a tent up to stand against that freak gust of 60-70mph that can come like a hammer blow out of the 30mph zepyhrs and push one pole that inch too far. And once one pole is down, the rest are more vunerable.

Having spent at least one night of my life trying to bring a wrecked tent under control while the kids snored in the toilet block (safer than the car, IMHO) I'm less than keen to deliberately go camping when the forecast is for winds hitting 35-40mph. Not only is it dangerous, not only can you get your megabucks tent wrecked, it's not even that much fun, except when you're telling the story afterwards. It's only a weekend camping, after all, not an Olympic gold medal!

Plus, one last consideration. It's not just the wind that's dangerous but also what's flying around in the wind. I often tell the story of how our (superbly pitched) old trailer tent came though the great storm in the Loire valley in 2003. (Or was it 2004? Anyway, THAT storm.) There was extensive damage done all over the region and certainly on our campsite near Tours several tents were completely destroyed. Also caravans were damaged ...the big double axle on the pitch opposite us was wrecked by a massive tree branch that had been hurled straight though the roof by the force of the wind. No tent could stand up to that, and imagine if one of you or your kids had been underneath if that came through your canvas?

Hey Valk Scot

We were in our tent at Ste Catherine de Fierbois, outside Tours in 2004, when a hell of a storm hit.

The forecast was so bad that the Police came round ahead of the storm to warn us; I spent an hour double pegging everything and then the heavens let loose. I remember worrying about bleeding from the ears because of the noise of the wind and the rain.

Came through it OK though.

We were fortunate that we were on a well-drained sunny pitch. Others lost tents or had to leave due to flooding, especially those in shady wooded pitches.