NTW09: The Weather Factory

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Comment by David Harradine on May 11, 2010 at 2:03pm

The weather in Snowdonia is:

Name: Alex Turner

Where are we: Somewhere on the hillside above Llyn Llydaw

What do you do: Environmental Change Network Project Officer, Countryside Council for Wales

Date: 28th April 2010

Comment by David Harradine on May 11, 2010 at 1:55pm

The weather in Snowdonia is:

Name: Alex McGregor

Where are we: Somewhere on the hillside above Llyn Llydaw

What do you do: Environmental Change Network Project Officer, Countryside Council for Wales

Date: 28th April 2010

Comment by David Harradine on May 11, 2010 at 11:07am

The weather in Snowdonia is:

Name: Kevin Smith

Where are we: Ty Coch Farm, Penmachno

What do you do: Animal handler, stuntman, farmer, and more...

Date: 26th March 2010

Comment by David Harradine on April 29, 2010 at 11:13am

It was like a beautiful installation in the middle of that epic landscape, hidden away and constantly there and watching and measuring and waiting. The wind wasn't too bad, but don't think the wobbly camerawork is meant to be artful.

Afterwards, I went up Snowdon. There was rather a lot of teetering and tottering on the way up, and I didn't spend long at the summit for fear of getting blown away.

But standing there, at the summit, surrounded by mountains, looking out at the sea, buffeted by wind, as clouds rolled and raced by and the sun flickered in and out, I thought, "This is the weather factory. This is the thing. Here."

Comment by Mathilde Lopez on April 28, 2010 at 11:43pm

What a multitude of incredibles tiny and vulnerable plastic tools to measure such an unfathomable (by its size and impact) sky and landscape!
How long did you manage to hold on to your camera before the wind blew you away? x

Comment by David Harradine on April 28, 2010 at 9:03pm

Comment by David Harradine on April 26, 2010 at 8:45pm

The weather in Snowdonia is:

Name: Cindy Morris

Where are we: Ty Coch Farm, Penmachno

What do you do: Animal handler, horse trainer, farmer, and more...

Date: 26th March 2010

Comment by David Harradine on March 26, 2010 at 3:03pm

The weather in Snowdonia is:

Name: Mac & Krig Ansell

Where are we: Lon Ucahf, Dinorwic

What do you do: Retired

Date: 30th January 2010

Comment by David Harradine on March 26, 2010 at 2:58pm

The weather in Snowdonia is:

Name: Twm Elias

Where are we: Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, Plas tan y Bwlch

What do you do: Lecturer, Course Organiser, Writer, and expert on Welsh weather lore

Date: 18th December 2009

Comment by David Harradine on March 26, 2010 at 9:57am

It's March. I've been coming up to north Wales, to Snowdonia, each month since December, to visit the weather. I'm in a Thai restaurant in Caernarfon. Driving here from Bethel, for the first time, unbelievably, I've seen heavy rain. After four months, finally, heavy rain.

I started this project expecting each visit to be wet, to be rain, expecting every person I spoke to to say that the rain is the character of this place, but no: I've had wind, mist, cloud, sun, snow, cloud, drizzle, hail, and of course rain, but nothing like this simple long heavy falling. Heavy rain. Too heavy to stay in the sky.

As I approached the city, these big fat heavy drops mix with a fine mist, so that ahead the lights caught on the underside of the clouds look like an aurora: shifting waves of living, moving light. There's something about the sudden surprise of this long-anticipated rain that is delightful, fresh feeling, like a beginning: like the project's finally beginning, and the aurora reveals itself to mark the occasion.

And there is another occasion to mark. Earlier today I visited a possible location, for the second time, and I think we've found our factory. I can't say where it is or what it is, and it might not happen, so I don't want to jinx it, but if it all works out, it's going to be incredibly exciting. 9pm in a Thai restaurant in Caernarfon... 2pm in the biggest building I've ever been in... 3pm sitting looking at the sea, then at the mountains as they catch and collect clouds. My little body in a monumental landscape, beneath a monumental weather-filled sky. And I imagine an image, a light, small, in the distance, a body moving, a dance perhaps, and music, and in here, in the biggest building I've ever been in, far away, nearly half a mile away but in this same building (because that's how big it is), it finally starts to rain...

Incredibly exciting, indeed...

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