I completed the 250km walk from Porto to Santiago de Compostela last week. It took 3 weeks (plus a couple of days off) for me and my husband to cover the distance. The weather at the start of the Caminho Português Central was fine and warm – too warm in places – we were lucky to be on the road before restrictions caused by wild fires came into force. When we reached Valença on the border with Spain, the weather turned and in Galicia, the region lived up to its reputation as the urinal of Spain. The medieval stone paths turned to waterfalls which were not easy to negotiate when wearing a backpack. Damp and bedraggled, we reached Santiago having acquired a couple of ponchos said to be effective against 2000mm of rain.
Everyday we checked the weather forecast in Santiago before heading out. On one occasion while sheltering from the rain, I checked the forecast in other places named Santiago. Here were the results:
Santiago de Compostela was predicted heavy rain, Santiago in Chile showed full sunshine while Santiago de Cuba had a mixed outlook. This made me wonder if you could use a weather forecast to inspire a story. Certainly, footage from Hurricane Milton gives pause for thought. In writing fiction, choose a destination, look up the weather forecast, and see if this can be a useful prompt for your creativity. Alternatively, watch Michael Fish’s weather blooper when he failed to predict the UK hurricane in 1987 and see if this stirs any ideas.
