Assessment

Timing - Where movement is concerned timing is important, it’s not wise to travel across unknown territory on a dark night, especially without a compass. With only a few hours of light left, it would in most cases be better to spend the time setting up camp for the night, finding (if you haven’t already) edibles and preparing a meal and beginning the journey at day break.

To determine how many hours of daylight are left, face the sun, reach your arm out towards it and bend your wrist inwards aligning your fingers just below the sun. Each finger (not including the thumb) that fits between the sun and the horizon = 15 minutes.

The water cycle

The movement of water and air in our local atmosphere, caused by changes in temperature, results in weather. As air is warmed it rises, cold air moves in to replace it creating winds, in fact winds do not blow, but are sucked. The warm air a combination of water vapour and ?oxygen/ particles, always moving upward and onward, eventually hits higher cooler bands of atmosphere causing the water vapours to condense and collect on dust particles in the air until they are heavy enough to fall as rain.

With this in mind;

• When a consistent dry wind suddenly drops, this could foretell rain.
• If a mist or denser still, a fog, moves upward, it could condense and fall as rain.
• A static mist in the morning, foretells a fairly stable airflow above it and therefore fair weather, but if it is still hanging around at midday, it could condense more and fall as rain.
• An area of pressure feels denser, when it is displaced it leaves a space and we can predict that this space is about to be filed by air, cooler than that which just left it.
• If noises seem to become clearer and louder, it could indicate that moisture is in the incoming airflow -amplifying sound.
• High gathering moisture causes a coloured halo around the sun or the moon called a corona, if this is visibly expanding it is an indication of evaporating water vapours, and vice-versa.
• Insects and animals have a great sensitivity to atmospheric pressures and observing them, relating their behavioural patterns to weather patterns will help you read their actions to predict changes in weather more clearly over time.
• The trees and plants also detect and react to incoming moisture, and their sappy smell becomes more noticeable as their ‘pores’ open to receive it.
• Insects will stay closer to the ground in the event of incoming turbulence.