Monday 14 May 2007

Always Take the Weather

Sfx

John Hee has posted in response to my comments about the weather, and ongoing chats with Jerry (who knows about radios) .

I've put a link below to the Met Office mountain area forecasts, if like me, you haven't got the number in your mobile. Sorry, that should now read "if like me, you hadn't got the number in your mobile."

And the book I have is Malcolm Thomas' "Weather for Hillwalkers & Climbers" (Sutton Publishing) (link)

A service that I haven't had to investigate yet is Weathercall. Mentioned in Thomas' book, it sells weather forecasts to your mobile. Services include SMS and MMS, as well as audio. Availability varies.

Glencoe is East Highlands (it says), so for the telephone call that is 09068 500 424 then 2404. For the SMS, you'd have to use a map to find the nearest place as there are none on the site, just a list of locations. Same for MMS (I like that idea). Charges are listed as:

  • Telephone. Calls cost 60p per minute from a UK landline. Calls from mobiles may be subject to network operator surcharges.
  • SMS. Text forecasts cost 25p, and are subject to network operator standard text charges. Available to all mobile networks.
  • MMS forecasts cost £1 and are subject to network operator standard text charges. Weathercall is available to all mobile networks.

Subscriptions can be bought at a reduced rate. To be honest, the service just fails to grab me. There isn't even a pdf brochure which I could carry in case of emergency. The nearest is the regional information, but fail to list to locations (and no map again) and do not list the MMS information for Grampian for example. I might foresee a day when I feel the need to have a weather forecast texted to me daily - on a cross-country hike, maybe.

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