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We were staying at Burnham on Sea, Somerset.

The strong, gusty winds kept me awake all night, rocking the van and making the Compactlite awning flap noisily.  Lots of the vanners around us took their awnings down during the night (or perhaps they blew away?) - but I'm happy to say ours stayed totally secure throughout, which was good news since it was its first time out of the bag!

I did have a bit of a fright - the Heki rooflight (directly over the bed) suddenly blew wide open at around 3am.  Luckily, it wasn't raining at that particular moment!

I don't think we had such strong winds as in the North and by the afternoon when we towed home, it was well within safe conditions for towing and we towed home without any issue.

windy weather makes me windy.

during our 3weeks of blissfull weather in july 2006 away with the caravan we spent our last week at a site at filey and what a great site but for the wind coming over the top off the cliffs and across the park was another story as the week went on the weather we had for the previous two weeks started to change come the wendnesday night the wind started off not so bad but come around 2am it was enreal the wind was the strongest i have ever experienced the caravan was jumping with every gust that hit.at about 10 past 2 the awning decided it wanted to take off  the wife and i were about to go out the door as to stop the awning taking flight but just as we pushed the lever on the door the awning took off and flapped around like a flag on a pole the family opposite us were also hit we both helped each other to collect our belonings that got scatered around and littrally throw them in the car once we got the awning down and most of our possesions reclaimed i put the car along side the van to act as a wind breaker but the caravan was still jumping once we got back in the van we had a cuppa to calm our nerves we tried to settle down for the remainder of the night but my insides we in knots and the wind ratlling around inside me was well not so nice.to say the least.but we came through it and were still mad caravanners........

We saw caravans turned over back in 1987 or 88 we were in the frame trent and put the children in the car and held on to the tent for dear life. I was too scared to even attempt to take it down.

Quote: Originally posted by Big Al on 19/3/2007

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Wind......oh yes it was a great help on the way home this weekend blew us all the way home ..... result.....hardly used any derv !

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Trust you Al, another penny saving idea. lol

We stayed in Holmfirth this weekend and must have been quite sheltered as we took down our full awning (first time we have used it).............then a gust of wind hit us and took it over the top of the caravan, destroying one pole and tearing the fabric.  Luckily there was no damage to the caravan !  Seems the brackets used to hold awning to caravan have been well designed as it allowed the awning to lift without damage to caravan. Then the journey.  We reached an open moor which felt quite unstable.  We asked advice of someone parked in the opposite direction.  They said it was an open moor for about 7 - 8 miles.  Promptly turned around and back to where we started, taking a slow trip home a different way with several stops.

It took 5 hours instead of the 2 hours to get their BUT we are home safely. 

Really put me off hearing about the poor caravans which blew over, especially when you are away from home and not knowing the roads, quite worrying.

Some would say I shouldn't have towed but I did about 40-45mph and it was weirdly reassuring to see other caravans.

Take care