Irish mountain forecasts

[chigton]

I'm thinking about doing some of the Furths of Ireland and wonder if anyone knows of any decent forecast websites for the area, ideally something equivalent to MWIS. I have looked at www.mountain-forecast.com but I find it quite vague, it is quite hard to determine from it the chances of the summits being cloud free. Also if anyone knows any websites where you can obtain OS maps for Ireland would be useful. The one for Macgillycuddy's Reeks seems a worthwhile purchase but because Brandon mountain, Galtymore and Lugnaquilla are standalone peaks it seems a waste of money to but three different maps for these areas.

[jmarkb]

Ireland isn't very well served for weather forecasts. The Met Eireann site https://www.met.ie/ is pretty rubbish, though it does have rainfall radar, and the Regional Forecasts are perhaps the least useless bit. There are no mountain-specific forecasts (though there is a potato blight warning level!).

The Met Office rainfall forecast map http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/map/#?map=Rainfall&zoom=5 covers Ireland.

There is some online mapping here http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/ but it would be bit sketchy to navigate from (20m contour interval, no grid lines, no crags marked, etc.).

[Essan]

Unless some local has his own little website, I don't think there are any "human" mountain forecasts for Ireland - just the usual computer-generated apps.

[GillSte]

This European forecast is really, really good, with spectacular accuracy: http://www.wetterzentrale.de/en/panels.php?model=gfs&map=1&var=1&lid=OP If you can interpret pressure charts, you'll find this forecast to be extremely useful for many days ahead. I've been using it for years!

If you can't read pressure charts, you just click on the pane for the day you're interested in, and select United Kingdom, which also shows Ireland. This gives you detailed maps with forecasts for cloud cover, rain, wind etc. Takes a while to get all the info, but well worth it for the detail.

Don't worry too much about the fact that it's the forecast at low level. Just double the windspeed and drop the temperature about 10 C, and it'll give a rough idea of summit conditions.

And by the way, in the UK, the Met Office does miles better mountain forecasts than MWIS. You can get specific forecasts for a surprisingly large number of UK mountains, which have incredible spatial and temporal accuracy. For example, I've been able to choose to climb Dalmally hills in the sunshine whilst it's slashing it down at Tyndrum. You just pick the mountain nearest to where you want to climb, and it will be fine for "your" mountain.

[GillSte]

Oops just saw the second query about maps. I assume you've tried https://www.osi.ie/ ? I'm a bit of a map addict, I just love them, so I always, always buy the maps. It certainly makes the navigation much more reliable, an important issue in Ireland where the weather is very changeable and you're likely to need a bearing. Plus, there are some really great hills quite close to Brandon, so you can always climb those too, or go back and bag them later.

[jmarkb]

With some common sense and a compass, I think either of the most popular routes up Brandon (Pilgrimage path and Faha route) would be fine without a map: the paths are well enough marked.

[jmarkb]

And by the way, in the UK, the Met Office does miles better mountain forecasts than MWIS. You can get specific forecasts for a surprisingly large number of UK mountains, which have incredible spatial and temporal accuracy. For example, I've been able to choose to climb Dalmally hills in the sunshine whilst it's slashing it down at Tyndrum. You just pick the mountain nearest to where you want to climb, and it will be fine for "your" mountain.

Well, they have incredible spatial and temporal precision!

I think you probably just got lucky - there are very few meteorological situations where the any differences in forecast between locations that close together are actually meaningful.

[Robinho08]

One of the Irish guides that stays near the Macgillycuddy's Reeks swears by https://www.metcheck.com/

As for maps; Harvey's do a map for the whole of the Reeks! I didn't really rate the Irish OS maps, not a patch on our OS.

[GillSte]

Well, they have incredible spatial and temporal precision!

I think you probably just got lucky - there are very few meteorological situations where the any differences in forecast between locations that close together are actually meaningful.

Oooooops lousy choice of words...I can't find a blushing smilie But actually, I've got lucky so many times, that I really do think the Met Office are doing very well with their precision. Surely 20 miles is feasible in terms of precision?

[jmarkb]

But actually, I've got lucky so many times, that I really do think the Met Office are doing very well with their precision. Surely 20 miles is feasible in terms of precision?

In some cases, yes, but mostly other sources of uncertainty in the forecast will be dominant.
It's hard to make objective assessments though - confirmation bias is amazingly hard to avoid!