Weather for photography

By Adrian Toon, director of a2n.

The nights have closed in and finding good weather for taking pictures becomes more problematic.

There are the normal weather apps, such as the Met Office and BBC Weather, which can offer a good indication as to when you will see some sun or brighter weather, but there are some excellent apps and websites where much more information is available.

For a better indication of the weather in any UK location, currently and in the future, I use windy.com which is packed with useful data while offering an excellent map of the UK.

Its main function is to show wind speed for aviators, but it is also useful for forecasting for photography. For installers of curtain walling, the site is useful to determine when it is safe to install glazed units or unitised curtain wall. It’s also available as a phone/tablet app.

Determining where the sun is for any given location and date suncalc.net offers a UK map and location icon which shows where the sun is to rise, its height and times. This is useful to see if and when the sun appears on a building elevation, given that the sun will not be behind cloud.

Both these sites and others offer additional weather information when you plan to take photography, so check several locations and personalise your forecast.