Hiking and cycling are two completely different types of outdoor activities. What they have in common is that they are the simplest and therefore most popular. In addition, both are highly dependent on the weather. In brief, hikers don’t like rain and extreme cold or heat, and cyclists don’t like wind either. But there are other weather elements, which are also important in these sports. In this article, as someone who does both of them, I will give some tips on weather forecasting for hiking and cycling using the Windy.app as an example.
Outdoor writer from the Italian Alps and Finnish Karelia
— Firstly, avoid rains, snowfalls and all other precipitation the day before a hike.
When the sun finally comes out, we always want to go straight into the woods or mountains. But wet vegetation, earth, rocks, and other surfaces as easily as the rain itself will wet and make your clothes dirty, greatly slowing down your movement and making your hike less safe (you can easily slip and get injured, which is critical in hiking). Surfaces also dry not immediately, but from several hours to days if the weather is cloudy. After the rains, rivers overflow heavily, and it becomes impossible to wade. And so on… The heavier the rain and / or the more rains the day before your hike — the worse.
The same applies to mountain bikers and bikepackers, but almost no applies to road cyclists (asphalt dries out quickly, especially in the sun).
So before a hike or bike trip, check the precipitation forecast not only for the day of activity, but also the day before.
Read 12 more of my tips on how to use the weather forecast for hiking and cycling on the Windy.app blog of the leading pro weather forecast app for wind sports and outdoors.
Text: Ivan Kuznetsov
Cover photo: Marek Piwnicki / Unsplash
