Stressed about the weather!

[NC4this222]

Is the BBC weather forecast for Saturday - currently predicting rain - likely to be accurate at this stage (Wednesday night)? I’ve a birthday garden party and barbecue planned and the number of adults and kids I’ve invited won’t fit in my home without us being uncomfortably squashed.

Have you opened the full forecast that give an hourly forecast?

Did you know the 60% chance of rain actually means 60% of the area you are looking at will have rain?

We've just been to my mums caravan last week and it forecasted rain all week and we only had one day.

Hope it works out for you.

Put a gazebo up, open the house doors and folks can wander between the two. I have had garden parties in the rain many times. The more hardy people will gather in the garden/ gazebo and the house is available if needed. As long as there is plenty of drinks and food, they’ll have a great time.

No it doesn't. According to https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/guides/what-does-this-forecast-mean 60% chance of rain means there is a 6 in 10 chance of rain during that hour/day etc. The BBC also backs this up though the language is less clear: https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/about/17185651

Though Herts is a big area I looked at Welwyn Garden City forecast and it’s dry and cloudy and not particularly warm. Yes Sunday is better but as pointed out it’s always going to be a risk even if it was August!

Do you have a local weather person on Facebook? We have an enthusiast in our local area and he posts his forecast for our town on his Facebook page. The weather apps will contradict him fairly often but he's the one who is accurate 90% of the time. Have a search as there's a fair few around with their own weather stations now.

I don't think you are mad to have a bbq in April, my daughter's birthday is in April and it has always been lovely weather, apart from this year. I have been checking the weather forecast alot during the Easter holidays and it has been predicting miserable but it has turned out to be nice so I have no idea what's going on. Typical next week is going to be really nice when the kids are back!! Hopefully it stays nice for you, pop a few blankets outside and yes a marquee if you can. Just to add I think our Springs are better than our Summers sometimes, August can be so rainy so yes go ahead and plan your bbq

I am a weather checker fanatic. I find the most accurate app is meteoblue. I think it’s European but I always cross reference that, bbc, met office and AccuWeather every day and that’s the one that always seems to have it right.

Weather looking a lot better in hertfordshire tomorrow now.

Forecast for my daughter’s party tmrw (Scotland) is 13-14 degrees and overcast. I’ll bloody take it!

Buy a cheap gazebo from argos

It said rain for Bedfordshire all week and now it’s just saying cloudy with some sun on mine!

Yes! It’s now saying sun and cloud with low chance of rain. A dramatic improvement from the forecast just a few days ago. Happy days!

Hmmm, grey cloud here this morning. But it does still say that it will be dry with sunny spells later!

At this point I’ll take cloud - so long as the garden is usable (i.e. dry!)

Hows it looking for you @Sportacus17 ?