A white Easter?
Published on 19th March 2008 
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutesFrom the various weather forecasts that I have been perusing, it looks as if the weather for this Easter will be a wintry affair. One thing that does seem strange is that 2008 might get a white Easter, while 2007 was bereft of a white Christmas. The fact that Easter is early this year, near enough the end of March, might have something to do with it as well.
If we do get the predicted weather, it will be a marked contrast to last year when I enjoyed several trots along the Pennine Way: a clag-bound affair on Holy Thursday, a windswept one in the sunshine on Easter Sunday and a dampened one on the day after. The previous year saw me experience a number of seasons while on the way up and down Goatfell on Arran; the nearest I came to winter conditions was a hail showered as I neared the summit and snow underfoot thereabouts too.
While the idea of wintry showers might not appeal to fair weather types and I can vouch for the fact that they can irritate even if you are equipped to deal with them, the prospect of a sunlit landscape coated in white more than makes up for any annoyance. From a walking perspective, snow isn't so bad, so long as visibility doesn't deteriorate to a level where your ability to navigate is compromised. Frozen water can be seen to be "drier" water, an impression seared into my memory by a trek up and over Ribblesdale's Whernside one Saturday in February a few years ago.
All in all, I could be tempted outside by the forecast, and I do seem to detect a spot more intelligence with the Met Office's weather warnings. While I won't be doing anything silly, painting the place red at the least hint of problematical weather is daft too. No concrete plans exist yet, so it'll be a case of seeing what happens...
