Too windy?

[purpleboy]

Hope someone can give a bit of advice.

We are due to go camping mon-fri at lizard point Cornwall. Weather is looking shocking, gusts of up to 50mph at some points, wind hovering around the 20mph mark. Our tent is the huge skandika nimbus 12 man tent. We've never really camped before and I think it's going to be a terrible experience.
Can anyone give us some guidance on if we should even bother going?
Thanks

I don't know your tent but most large tents are not designed for strong winds. I have been on a campsite in bad weather where most of the big tents were dumped in a barn the next morning

Even small tents were damaged... we had narrow end facing the wind and lots of shelter including the car and it was lively , tent flexing onto my face whilst sleeping

We have cancelled our trip. Sad.

I was thinking the same thing, i think it's probably really noisy and pretty scary. Don't really want that to be our first experience in case it puts off the kids 😔

Sorry you had to cancel your trip too, really shitty especially with the year we've had so far!

You need to cancel. We were in Devon last Wednesday and had to leave at midnight. We have solid rock pegs (ie not the standard thin pegs you get with tents) and they were being pulled from the ground. Doesn’t help they have had rain so the field was muddy and soft. These family nylon tents are not made for this weather. That trip cost me £160 and I spent 8 hrs on the site. Tomorrow we are meant to be going to Dorset and there is a yellow storm warning from Tuesday morning so I’m going to cancel that trip £240 for that. Never again will I book camping trips in advance - I really do not know what came over me a month ago. I can cope with normal rain and winds but not 30mph winds. The tent can’t cope either.

www.ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/p/Skandika-Nimbus-II/997
If you read the bottom review they put the tent up in near gale force winds.
Firstly, read reviews for the campsite and see how sheltered it actually is. I have camped on sites with amazing hedges surrounding pitches or areas, and when you go out of site it's gale force but where your tent is there's barely a breeze.
I'd also ring the campsite and see what they say about the wind - they're used to it and likely have made provision for windbreaks from the prevailing wind - which I think is from SW as normal this week, and also about how difficult to peg the ground, and how they think your style tent might fare in this forecast weather.

It's not an unpleasant wind so long as not rainy (not checked the forecast for Cornwall), I'm sure the tent would survive OK if the site isn't on a clifftop, but my biggest concern is you are novices, you'll not manage to get the tent up without some angst and bits blowing away - have you practised at home a few times? The key to pitching in a gale is to have a clear plan of action, plenty of spare pegs, a large bottle of water (to soften very hard ground to get a peg in), some weights (to put on the tent as you don't want it to blow away as you put it up, and after to hold the tent down wind-side)
Maybe camp in the garden tonight instead and see how long it takes to put up?

Our tent was fine last night and the night before in strong winds. it depends on the site, the tent and how well you put it up.

@morosetinkler - there wasn’t a weather warning last night. There is now for the south from Tuesday morning until Wednesday. 25mph winds predicted. It is a yellow weather warning on the BBC weather app.

[quote Coffeeandbeans]@morosetinkler - there wasn’t a weather warning last night. There is now for the south from Tuesday morning until Wednesday. 25mph winds predicted. It is a yellow weather warning on the BBC weather app.[/quote]
It's irrelevant if there isn't a weather warning when you are in a tent with 40mph gusts of wind which is what the weather was telling us we were having.

Friends had their tent ruined last week. Sturdy old canvas job too with rock pegs 😳😳

That’s a tent with fibreglass poles. And presenting a big area to whatever direction the wind is coming from.

I wouldn’t put it up until / unless the forecast changes.

You can peg as securely as you like, and storm-guy (two guys on each point, see Gary Cross Cross Camping Storm Guy video) and then the tent rips or a pole breaks instead.

Family camping tents are not made for extreme winds.

Given the weather is only in 20s on Tuesday I'd probably go regardless, but make sure you have the better pegs.

I have to say it would be quite ambitious to take such a large tent to Cornwall in this weather, honestly you may not even get it pitched if you are new to it. Maybe on a very sheltered site with some extra guy ropes and pegs. If would be a shame if it got damaged.

I'd probably delay until the worst is over.

Our Outwell Montana survived one storm that finished off other tents but a storm at a Devon clifftop site ripped it in two - we had to find a B&B for the night the go home. Not something I'd want to repeat.

We have been camping at lizard point for the past week. We did a couple of nights in the really strong winds and survived intact. A lot of it is down to luck in how sheltered your pitch is. Not going to lie, it is pretty noisy in the wind. All 3 kids slept through though, including 3 year old DD.

@Ciderandskatesdontmix - well done. We were in Devon and came out Wednesday night because of the wind. Our pitch was really exposed though.

We were in the lakes on Wednesday and came home Thursday instead of staying another 2 nights, tent was seriously shaking in the wind, kids were scared, we lost a guy rope completely and dh had to re peg most of the rest at 3am while I reassured dc and kept them looking the opposite way to the main part of the tent where one of the air beams was bent so far inwards it was leaning on the table in the middle of the tent....

I would cancel!!!!

If you read the bottom review they put the tent up in near gale force winds They seem to be using colloquial language for ‘strong wind’. The weather forecast I saw fit Cornwall has a yellow warning and Gale and Strong Gale force winds.

Also, how old is the tent? If it has suffered some wear and tear or had regular use in sun over its life, that’s another weak link in what it takes to keep a tent up and in one piece in a storm.

I would also cancel, especially as it's your first time. If the weather is horrendous it will put you off camping for life. Wind is worse then rain I think.

We went camping to Devon last week, we were meant to be staying Monday - Friday, overnight on the Tuesday we had downpours and high winds, it was awful so we packed up and came home on Wednesday.

As a PP mentioned I will never book a campsite in advance again.

How many of you are there? Could you swap to smaller more wind resistant tents for the worst of it? That's what I would do but there's only 3/4 of us and we have a large collection of tents.

We are camping Tuesday on the south Devon coast, we have a Campervan and large awning and trying to decide what to do 🤔, we have camped in wind before but not 50-60mph. If we cancel we lose £60 so not the end of the world. My other option is to leave teenage dd1 at home and sleep in the van with dd2 (and not pitch the awning).

We have camped on one of those clifftop Cornish campsites in a severe storm, a number of tents were blown down in the morning and big wobbly ones with fibreglass poles were among the most vulnerable. We've had a pole snap even in a much smaller dome tent,it bent over so far it ripped the fabric. Not to mention sitting in it with the flapping, pelting rain nd constantly blowing around wondering If it will go at any minute.

@NotMeNoNo

We have camped on one of those clifftop Cornish campsites in a severe storm, a number of tents were blown down in the morning and big wobbly ones with fibreglass poles were among the most vulnerable. We've had a pole snap even in a much smaller dome tent,it bent over so far it ripped the fabric. Not to mention sitting in it with the flapping, pelting rain nd constantly blowing around wondering If it will go at any minute.

I think the inflatable tents are probably best for this weather, although they probably move around a lot at least there are no poles to snap.

We will be putting storm straps into ours to hopefully make it more stable, we also have storm pegs.

Good luck, you would think the inflatable might be more resilient.

Personally if I am buying a tent and want one to withstand high winds then I'd look for aluminium poles with shock cord inside and a tent with sleeves for the poles to go in. The more poles the greater protection from the wind; our tent has two poles crossed over the roof and then another four for the front and back. It's also double shelled in the bedroom area which provides greater protection from the wind but that's comfort and not strength so much. The other thing to think about avoiding are tents with two doors but that said our tent has two doors but we accept the trade off between greater wind protection and convenience. Obviously lower tents are better in high winds, I'd always get on with just enough head roof to hang a light up in the middle and to stand up in the tallest parts and no more than that if I'm going to use it a lot when it's very windy.

Our tent was fine last night and the night before in strong winds. it depends on the site, the tent and how well you put it up.

It does, although the OP said that they are novices and have a massive 12 man canvas bungalow.

We have a traditional mountain tent that just does not move even in the strongest gales. I really wouldn't recommend it for a family camping holiday in Cornwall though.