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I understand that weather forecasts are notoriously inaccurate BUT...

I'm booked in to go away for a week to a site which has no shelter and is right on the coast...  The forecast is for steady wind of 24mph with gusts up to the mid 30s

Too windy?

We've been away in appalling wind before and (save a couple of cracked pole sections) have come out unscathed.

How wary would you be about going away knowing the forecast was fairly blowy??

Noooooooo dont pitch facing the wind

Always bum to the wind !

Angie

I think that's what he meant - or at least that's how I read it!!!  I guess the aim is to have a windy behind, then?  Definitely not side-on.

Yes, bum end into the wind, always. If the wind blows directly into the tent doorway it will lift the canvas up and out and possibly pull the pegging out. Not good. If you pitch bum end to the wind it will (theoretically) flow up and over the tent, this pressing it down.

However...30mph is generally taken to be the point above which big leisure tents start to struggle. When tent manufacturers say "guarantee does not apply if tent is used in excessive weather conditions" this is what they mean. Also, there's more possibility of damage during pitching and striking a tent in high winds than there is dutring the time it's up, guyed and double-guyed and all the rest. Can you get it up at all, that's the question?

Personally I'm not really keen on 30+mph winds....

Quote: Originally posted by xAndyCx on 29/6/2009

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HOw do you tell though, without having any metreological implements to hand, whether the wind is 30mph+ or not?

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The Beaufort Scale, an old campers friend...

http://www.zetnet.co.uk/sigs/weather/Met_Codes/beaufort.htm

Khyam recommends using additional storm guys to get their Flexi Dome tent added stability in strong wind.

I bought 2 sets of storm guys and used half the recommended amount on my tent when I pitched it up, even when it was a relatively calm day.

Good job I did that too, as there were really bad storms for a couple of days, the town 12 miles from the campsite was flooded, and there were reports of hail storms and drifting snow, in the middle of Jun 09 in Norfolk!!!

The tent stayed up through out, even when my windbreak and concertina kitchen got blown over while I was out!

I have also learnt the virtue of not over-tightening the guys to allow the tent a degree of moment in windy conditions.

I shall make sure full storm guys are used from the onset in future to avoid mishaps.

I shall also use additional guys for my new windbreak for added stability too.

DK

You can't beat the trial and error method, when the tent blows away it's time to sleep in the car.

I've done it, luckily we were still in the pub when my tent blew down, and the nice people at Vango sent me a new set of poles. 

I so often go away and see people not using any of the guys once they have pegged the main tent - big mistake.  I would say the guys, and just as important, good guy pegs, are key to pitching the tent in any weather because you never know...........

My fav topic this having experienced 30-40mph winds in a fibre-glass tunnel tent in April. Not much fun I can tell you and resulted in a night in the car after poles shattered and tent partially collapsed.

As I've said before on here, once Metcheck say 20mph, I start to consider cancelling and if it's above 25mph we don't go, end of, even though we have a much sturdier metal-poled affair now.

Oh, and BTW, we use all the guys all of the time with DELTAS on EVERY one of them. We also peg the tent with rock pegs as they don't bend and buckle.