mountain weather forecasting

I was just looking up my references for NathanaelB. Most modern publications only seem to advise websites to look up. But I just opened my father's 2nd edition of Moirs Guide book, published in 1948 and it has a wonderful chapter on weather forecasting in the mountains. It even states that "Experinced people can foretell the weather by the sounds of waterfalls and the twittering of birds". Another resource I recall was a series of articles by Bob McDavitt in the FMC Bulletins a couple of years ago which explained mountain weather in great detail. A good site is the Mountain Safety Site ande specifically http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/Safety-Tips/Be-aware-of-the-weather.asp I am sure one of the MSC publications will have info on forecasting the weather.

@pmcke: The Moir's 3rd edition (1959) Southern Section doesn't have those notes...Any chance of scanning them and putting them up on this site? When the sandflies whih have been giving you a break suddenly start to bite that can be a sign of barometric pressure dropping. I once went to a weather talk and the thing I remembered most was when the cloud base lowers, rain may be imminent. That said, I watched the cloud base over TaraTama the other day and yes, it did drop and we did get tiny spots of rain now and again, but it did eventually clear and stayed that way for several days. It is possible to foretell the signs of an oncoming front. Crudely described, it is the appearance and progression of cloud types, from cirrus (including halos around the sun), to cirro-cumulus etc. to the eventually oh-oh cumulonimbus. I recall a story of A.P. Harper on one of his final NZAC climbing camps where he demonstrated his knowledge on this stuff to the novices. Another way of figuring out where the low lies is to (in the Southern Hemisphere) face the wind and extend your left arm. This will indicate where the low is. Currently, we have 2 lows which are forecasted to fuse on Tuesday morning so we'll be getting a real wx bomb affecting west and north S.I. and that other island!

Honora.. I will see what I can do. The 1948 edition of Moirs is a hoot. It has a section on taking "girls" tramping that would enrage any modern feminist. Apparently they are inclined to feel a little off colour at times and we are supposed to help them and make their packs lighter at these times. But the humdinger is in the 1925 1st edition where it advises that when you arrive at Martin's Bay and want to cross the river, go up into the bush and find a little shed that is full of gelignite. It tells you to let off a plug to attract the runholder's attention and he will come over in his boat to pick you up.

Ha Ha. Yes, Frank went up the Edwards with a maiden and she was a bit peaky with pain etc. Not me! Now he has to put up with the hot flushes i.e. I hog the aircon vents etc.

I made a comment earlier in this thread that it would be good if rain radar images were available if formatted for use on a cell phone. Well, they already are. I tried http://www.metservice.co.nz on my cell phone and they have a striped down service there for cell phone use, including rain radar images and weather maps. Excellent!!!