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Hiking and cycling are two completely different types of outdoor activities. What they have in common is that they are the simplest and therefore the most popular ones. 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 other weather elements are also important in these sports.
In this article, as someone who does both, I will give some tips on weather forecasting for hiking and cycling using the Windy.app as an example.
Ivan Kuznetsov, outdoor writer from the Italian Alps and Finnish Karelia
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 will make your clothes wet and dirty as easily as the rain itself, greatly slowing you down and making your hike less safe (you can easily slip and get injured, which is critical in hiking). Surfaces don't dry immediately either: it takes from several hours to several days if the weather is cloudy. After heavy rains, rivers overflow, and it becomes impossible to wade across them. And so on... The heavier the rain and/or the more rain the day before your hike, the worse. The same applies to mountain bikers and bikepackers, but hardly applies to road cyclists (asphalt dries out quickly, especially in the sun). So before a hike or a bike trip, check the precipitation forecast not only for the day of the activity, but also for the day before.
That's how you will get a clearer, larger picture in addition to the icons and numbers in your app. The map is also useful for seeing how precipitation will move. Sometimes the forecast chart shows precipitation, but on the map, it turns out that it will affect you just a little. And vice versa: you are out of the rain zone at 10 am, but it will reach your route by lunchtime. The map also helps you understand where it’s raining in the neighboring areas, so you can assess the overall situation and draw your own conclusions. With a forecast chart, you would have to check hundreds of spots — it’s just impossible. In other words, the weather map for precipitation and other elements is extremely useful.
There can also be heavy rain at night, which seems unimportant for a hike the next day. But in the morning after it, everything will also be wet (see above). It’s the same with the temperature: it may be warm and comfortable during the day, but in the morning it’s 10 degrees lower, and you need to leave the camp at 6 am. You know yourself that it doesn’t get warm immediately after sunrise, but usually only by about noon — a full six hours on the trail, during which you have time to freeze a hundred times.
At the dew point, moisture forms on the grass and other surfaces, making the terrain less comfortable to walk on. Yes, it’s not as bad as rain during the hike or the day/night before, but just like after the rain, it’s easier to get your clothes wet, slip, and so on on dewy grass.
Lite Weather Profile in the Windy.app for iOS. Photo: Kalen Emsley / Unsplash
This is a unique feature of the app, which is more important for cyclists than for hikers. It allows you to bypass the 3-hour-only forecast in some weather models. Thanks to this feature, you will know exactly how the weather will change during your usual cycling or electric biking trip, which in my experience (and in the experience of other road cyclists) lasts about 2–3 hours, rarely 5–6 hours. Agree that three small forecasts of an hour each are better than one overall forecast for that period?
In the middle of the day, when the sun is at its strongest, it's easy to overheat and get sunburned. The strong sun is a real danger. Usually, the index reaches these values when the air temperature is 25–30 degrees Celsius and above. The UV index is more important for cyclists than for hikers because cyclists are on the move all the time and have nowhere to hide from the strong sun and wait it out.
Weather stations show real-time data about the weather here and now. That's how you'll know how accurate the forecast is. There are over 40,000 official weather stations in the world, and the Windy.app contains more than 30,000 of them, so the chance of finding at least a few near you is very high. For example, there’s at least one station a couple of kilometers from my house and several more within a couple of dozen kilometers. I check them regularly.
Bike Weather Profile in the Windy.app for iOS. Photo: Jens Herrndorff Rou / Unsplash
On a long hike or bike ride, the weather at the start and at the finish can be very different. With Forecast along the route in the Windy.app for iOS, you can upload a GPX file, import a route from Strava, or create a new one right in the app. Then you will see the wind direction and speed, gusts, temperature, and precipitation at each point of your route — exactly at the time you will be there. This is especially useful for cyclists: you will know in advance where you will have a headwind or a tailwind.
.jpg "Forecast along the route for a bike ride in the Windy.app for iOS")
Forecast along the route for a bike ride in the Windy.app for iOS
To do this, switch from the Bike and Lite (for hiking and travel in general) Weather Profiles to the Snow Weather Profile. Ski resort stations are usually located at an altitude of 1,000–2,500 meters, while the regular forecast is given near the ground: the temperature at a height of 2 meters and the wind at a height of 10 meters. Hiking and biking trails often pass through high mountain passes and mountains where ski resorts are located, but begin in valleys where it is usually warmer, less windy, less cloudy, and may not rain at all. The weather is usually worse on the passes and in the mountains. Although the opposite can also happen: clear on the summit or the pass, rain in the valley. In any case, this way you can know what to expect from the weather at the top and compare it to the weather in the valley or on the plain. You can also add these weather parameters to your custom weather profile for biking and hiking.
Gusts are also often neglected by outdoor enthusiasts. Some of them may not even be aware that this weather element exists. But it does. The danger of wind gusts is that with a light wind of 2–3 meters per second, gusts can reach 5–6 meters per second and much more. The wind is generally critical for cyclists, slowing your ride, but powerful gusts can knock you off the road together with your bike. This is also because almost all modern bikes that cost over 2,000 dollars/euros are made entirely of carbon fiber (a type of strong and light composite material), including not only the frame but also the wheels, handlebar, saddle, and everything else. So they are very light: only 7–8 kg, and some even 6.8 kg — the official minimum weight for a pro racing bike set by the International Cycling Union (UCI). For hikers, the wind is less critical, but gusts can also bring great discomfort: you will freeze even on a warm sunny day at +20 degrees and above. So avoid cycling and hiking in strong gusts, or take extra clothes with you. A vest or a jacket, as well as a hat, gloves, and a buff, are indispensable things that I always take with me to the mountains, even in summer (well, except during the African heatwaves in Europe, which seem to have become commonplace with global warming).
In the Windy.app, you can find it in almost all weather profiles. Read it like this: one layer — low cloudiness, two layers — average cloudiness, three layers — overcast. This is another weather element that is often neglected by hikers and bikers, who focus only on temperature and precipitation. But on a hot day, clouds cover the strong sun, which matters both for those who move around the mountains on their own two feet and for those on two wheels. Conversely, when the weather is cold, the lack of clouds will be a big plus — it’s always warmer in the direct sun than in the shade. In other words, sunny/overcast and cold/warm days are completely different things. Keep an eye on their combination.
With this level of humidity, high temperatures are much harder to tolerate. Humidity is one of the basic weather elements, and its values around 80–100% are considered critical. It’s like being in a sauna. High humidity also makes it harder to dry things that got wet during a hike or a bike ride, which happens very often.
You can find them at the end of the weather forecast table or on the Lite Weather Profile widget. Moving around in the dark is not recommended, either on foot or by bike. In the first case, it is simply impossible without a light source; in the second, it is dangerous without lights on your bicycle, even if the roads are lit. But even more important is the twilight period. In the southern regions of the world, darkness comes just about 30 minutes after sunset. In my experience, I don’t recommend watching the sunset on mountain tops and passes if the descent to the shelter takes longer than half an hour — you just won’t make it back before dark and will get stuck on the trail. This has happened to me a few times: once I miraculously made it down with 1% battery on my phone and without a headlamp, which I now always take with me. Same with the bike: on evening workouts, ride out so that you return in daylight, or at dusk at the latest, but not in the dark, and calculate the time you need to cover the intended distance. Put lights on your bike.
Beyond 10 days, the quality of the forecast greatly decreases. For trips of a month or more, it’s also useful to find out what the region’s weather has been like in the past. Knowing the average temperature, precipitation, and wind, you can roughly figure out how many good days there will be during the month and how many you will have to spend waiting out bad weather, as well as take the right things for each type of weather and lighten your luggage. In the Windy.app, weather history also includes atmospheric pressure and is available for every day since 2012, as well as averages by month and year.
How to use weather forecast for hiking and cycling. Valerya Milovanova / Windy.app
Cover photo: Marek Piwnicki / Unsplash
Forecast along the route: check the weather at each point of your hiking or biking route
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