Glasto weather warning

The weather forecasts for this week are not looking the best, and rainfall is likely to have an impact on Glastonbury Festival.

The forecasts from most sources are predicting very heavy rain, particularly on Tuesday, both in the daytime, and throught the night. Wednesday will also have some rain (but perhaps some sun too), as well as strong winds (around 25mph).

The rainfall over Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to be 2 inches. However, this is an average, and much heavier rain in some localities is possible. If rain hits Worthy Farm as it did on the Friday in '98, the site will turn into a swamp.

Thursday to Sunday are looking better, with no rain predicted, and with sunny periods. Temperatures look like being 18C at best over the Festival, and BBC Weather is predicting temperatures falling as low as 1C on Thursday night in Shepton Mallet (although other forecasts seem less pessimistic).

The soil at Worthy Farm is clay based, meaning that water can take some time to soak away. Hopefully, with the rain at the start of the Festival before the ground has been hardened by the trudging of 300,00 feet, things will go better than they did in '97 & '98. Improvements have been made to drainage systems around the farm since then too, but they're unlikely to cope with extreme rainfall.

Expect the ground to be sticky at best. At a certain point as the ground dries out (if it does ... fingers crossed!) we'll all grow an inch with the mud firmly stuck to the souls of our footwear.

Take your wellies ... they may not look as cool as those trendy boots, but the advantage of being able to not have to pick your way along, keeping to the driest path, far outweighs any aesthetic considerations.


Glastonbury 1998
photo © Fazorhead

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