The Weather Thread 2019

[Bags73]

2007 was the worst without a doubt, the rain got worse with each day and Monday morning was like a disaster zone.   Thousands of sodden tents left behind.   People queuing for coaches being given foil blankets for warmth.  

Spent 6 hours queueing to get out of the car park, saw a discarded brown banana in the grass next to the car at 10am, by 4pm and suffering from near starvation I decided to eat it.

Stopped at the first services and on TV were news pictures of a person being winched off a roof in Sheffield, the city had flooded.   I phoned work, straightaway (I was then working in emergency planning for the Government) and my boss asked when I could make it in.  They were on 24/7 shifts doing briefing for ministers.    Got home at midnight.  Dumped sodden camping gear at the bottom of the stairs and went to bed.  Next morning came downstairs and caught a whiff of the stuff I’d dragged back.  My tent and rucksack smelt like old bins.    Went for a bath but the water was off due to a mains burst up the road,  had to bathe in 2 inches of water that had already been used by my wife.   Went to work dealing with the summer floods. 

I’ll never forget 2007. 

[Phoenix Girl]

16 minutes ago, Bags73 said:

2007 was the worst without a doubt, the rain got worse with each day and Monday morning was like a disaster zone.   Thousands of sodden tents left behind.   People queuing for coaches being given foil blankets for warmth.  

Spent 6 hours queueing to get out of the car park, saw a discarded brown banana in the grass next to the car at 10am, by 4pm and suffering from near starvation I decided to eat it.

Stopped at the first services and on TV were news pictures of a person being winched off a roof in Sheffield, the city had flooded.   I phoned work, straightaway (I was then working in emergency planning for the Government) and my boss asked when I could make it in.  They were on 24/7 shifts doing briefing for ministers.    Got home at midnight.  Dumped sodden camping gear at the bottom of the stairs and went to bed.  Next morning came downstairs and caught a whiff of the stuff I’d dragged back.  My tent and rucksack smelt like old bins.    Went for a bath but the water was off due to a mains burst up the road,  had to bathe in 2 inches of water that had already been used by my wife.   Went to work dealing with the summer floods. 

I’ll never forget 2007. 

Ouch man that’s tough. Did you go back in 2008? 

[Bags73]

30 minutes ago, Phoenix Girl said:

Ouch man that’s tough. Did you go back in 2008? 

Of course!  Done every year since apart from 2013.   2007 is an outlier as are as the weather goes IMO.  I don't recall any others being as bad as that even though my wife says the tent flooding in 97 or 98 was pretty bad.  

[Phoenix Girl]

40 minutes ago, Bags73 said:

Of course!  Done every year since apart from 2013.   2007 is an outlier as are as the weather goes IMO.  I don't recall any others being as bad as that even though my wife says the tent flooding in 97 or 98 was pretty bad.  

I always wonder how people felt after 2007. My friends went that year for the first time (I didn’t). They all went back in 2008 too and persuaded me to go. We camped on about the steepest slope of campsite we could find (on Michaels Mead) I think it was. They were adamant that they were not going to have flooded tents that year. 

[Bags73]

Yeah we ended up in Lime Kiln Ground that year.  Miles from anything and a bit of a slope but dry.  Unlike a lot of places.  We took some newbies that year as well and they all came back for 2008.  If you can cope with 2007 you can cope with anything.

[briddj]

We can all relax. I'm sure this story is 100% reliable and well sourced. 

[BluePaul]

On 5/17/2019 at 2:50 PM, Phoenix Girl said:

I always wonder how people felt after 2007. My friends went that year for the first time (I didn’t). They all went back in 2008 too and persuaded me to go. We camped on about the steepest slope of campsite we could find (on Michaels Mead) I think it was. They were adamant that they were not going to have flooded tents that year. 

2007 was my first year.  It was absolute carnage and I swore that was it.

Then I figured however bad it got in subsequent years, it could never be as bad again.

Been every time since.  And it's never been as bad again.

[JoBalls]

I’ve added Pilton to my weather app so that I can keep an eye on the rainfall in the lead up to the festival - so far showing one day with “light showers” out of the next 10 days which is good news given the ground conditions are basically made before the festival. Feeling cautiously optimistic this year. 

 

[parsonjack]

1 hour ago, JoBalls said:

I’ve added Pilton to my weather app so that I can keep an eye on the rainfall in the lead up to the festival - so far showing one day with “light showers” out of the next 10 days which is good news given the ground conditions are basically made before the festival. Feeling cautiously optimistic this year. 

 

Slashing down in Frome at the moment....just keeping the ground soft....nothing to see here ?

[Ayrshire Chris]

1 hour ago, JoBalls said:

I’ve added Pilton to my weather app so that I can keep an eye on the rainfall in the lead up to the festival - so far showing one day with “light showers” out of the next 10 days which is good news given the ground conditions are basically made before the festival. Feeling cautiously optimistic this year. 

 

Yes, problem in 2016 was trucks, cranes etc moving around the site on sodden ground prior to festival opening

[JoBalls]

4 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Slashing down in Frome at the moment....just keeping the ground soft....nothing to see here ?

Yeah we need the odd shower here and there in the lead up, just once a week or so. Just enough so that we can get our tent pegs in!

Last summer we did Latitude which was right at the end of the 4 month heatwave and it had rained only twice in all that time in this part of the country (we live nearby). Trying to put the tent up was an ordeal because the ground was so hard that the tent pegs kept bending rather than going into the ground!

[Homer]

Countryfile just said dry all week in the West then rain from Friday. Which is great news being that I’m going to Shindig on Friday ?

[Padgey]

Off to Tenerife 2nd week in June so will be looking forward to a bit of rain by the last week of June! 

[tumbles]

Went camping in Devon for weekend and ground was like concrete.  Fair to say the odd bit of rain will do no harm right now. Forecast for next couple of weeks generally shows warm and sunny spells.  

[jfaragher]

On 5/17/2019 at 12:43 PM, Kashkin said:

Indeed, 2017 was more or less as close to perfect as I've seen in almost 20 years of attendance. The excessive heat on the Wednesday made queuing and setting up camp quite challenging, but after that it was plain sailing.

It was killer for the build / setup though.  I was volunteering, and did Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 0800 - 1600 on a vehicle gate.  It was 25+ by 10am, and just got hotter and hotter through the day.  Absolutely exhausting.

[jfaragher]

Update on this analysis.  See the original post for details and methodology

It's looking a bit wetter than before, especially in the couple of weeks before the festival.  But still not the kind of persistent horror that will lead to 2016 site saturation...

[Kashkin]

9 minutes ago, jfaragher said:

It was killer for the build / setup though.  I was volunteering, and did Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 0800 - 1600 on a vehicle gate.  It was 25+ by 10am, and just got hotter and hotter through the day.  Absolutely exhausting.

Wow, yes much respect for the build crew and other staff on a hot year (as well as on a wet/muddy year)! Can we please just have middling temperatures and no rain, is that too much to ask?

[Sasperella]

On 5/17/2019 at 12:25 PM, Kinkyinuit said:

I tend to do a check of the main sites on mondays and fridays but yeah, so far they have all been quite good for Glastonbury weekend itself.

Accuweather looks like a solid stick at the moment, metcheck's forecast is mostly similar, however it says that there will be 15mm of rain on the friday before G, which is a tad concerning!  

Generally though, there's the expected occasional shower forecast between now and Glastonbury  so I would imagine/hope that the ground will be in good enough shape to handle a downpour.  

Looks like that 15mm of rain on the Friday before has changed to   on the Tuesday. But only on Metcheck, and obvs we only listen to Accue as that's currently saying no rain in the run up

[tumbles]

38 minutes ago, jfaragher said:

Update on this analysis.  See the original post for details and methodology

It's looking a bit wetter than before, especially in the couple of weeks before the festival.  But still not the kind of persistent horror that will lead to 2016 site saturation...

 I have no scientific evidence to hand but we've had such a dry spell now that its getting ridiculous and surely at some point we're going to have a sustained period of unsettled weather.    1 month or so to the festival and the next couple of weeks still look on the whole rather dry.. 

[BambooShanks]

3 minutes ago, Sasperella said:

Looks like that 15mm of rain on the Friday before has changed to   on the Tuesday. But only on Metcheck, and obvs we only listen to Accue as that's currently saying no rain in the run up

 Indeed!  And the amount has gone down to 9mm.  Overall the amount of rain for May and June  looks absolutely fine, though that tuesday downpour could do with moving a few days earlier!  

Accuweather's forecast looks good.  A little too good for my liking.   

 

4 minutes ago, tumbles said:

we've had such a dry spell now that its getting ridiculous and surely at some point we're going to have a sustained period of unsettled weather

if it makes you feel better, metcheck thinks it's going to piss down quite a few times from now until Glastonbury?

 

[bigfurbdogg]

5 minutes ago, tumbles said:

 I have no scientific evidence to hand but we've had such a dry spell now that its getting ridiculous and surely at some point we're going to have a sustained period of unsettled weather.    1 month or so to the festival and the next couple of weeks still look on the whole rather dry.. 

I do not like where you are going with this! 

On the other hand i'm thinking we haven't had a period of sustained sunshine for a while (like last year), and none forecast over the next couple of weeks, so....

[tumbles]

3 hours ago, bigfurbdogg said:

I do not like where you are going with this! 

On the other hand i'm thinking we haven't had a period of sustained sunshine for a while (like last year), and none forecast over the next couple of weeks, so....

Haha I’m just the worst worrier of the weather. We’ve had such a good spell of weather in south west lately bar the odd day that I can help but fear ‘whens It going to end?’

[fred quimby]

18 minutes ago, tumbles said:

Haha I’m just the worst worrier of the weather.

you and me both. Well for the festival

[bigfurbdogg]

In a months time from now i will be completely addicted to this thread, counting down the minutes every 3/6 hours for the latest model runs. It's one of the most exciting things for me in the build up, and it can be absolutely glorious when it all starts coming together nicely and the forecast is looking great, with more and more confidence.

Last one i went to was 2016 though, needless to say the weather thread was not a happy place, people on site posting up videos of water volcanoes erupting from the ground.

 

[Crazyfool01]

7 minutes ago, bigfurbdogg said:

In a months time from now i will be completely addicted to this thread, counting down the minutes every 3/6 hours for the latest model runs. It's one of the most exciting things for me in the build up, and it can be absolutely glorious when it all starts coming together nicely and the forecast is looking great, with more and more confidence.

Last one i went to was 2016 though, needless to say the weather thread was not a happy place, people on site posting up videos of water volcanoes erupting from the ground.

 

enough of such talk ....