How to Deal With High Winds While Camping

Choose Your Site with Care

High winds can turn your campsite into a launchpad. Here's how to deal with high winds while camping.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Cinder blocks or other weights
• Rope
• Tarps
• Small sledge hammer
• Tent Stakes
• Cell phone or CB radio
• Flares
• Lighter
• Battery Operated Trouble Light

1. Pick your site wisely. The top of that hill may have a beautiful view, but it will not seem so beautiful when a storm breaks out and threatens to throw you down it, or when your awning becomes a parasail. Whether you are backpacking in, using a tent or RVing, high winds can be a real problem when camping. Backpackers must make do with whatever is available in the immediate area of the campsite. RVers and tent campers who drive in have a little more flexibility.

2. Choose a site that is sheltered by a hillside, embankment, or a line of trees far enough from the tent or RV that they will not be a lightning hazard or risk limbs falling on your campsite.Check the prevailing winds. Choose a site on the lee (out of the wind) side of a hill, embankment or line of trees.

3. Anchor your tent well, using strong ropes and stakes, Backpackers should using available rocks, logs, or trees as weights to keep the tent from being blown away. Be sure not to use any nails in trees, as this will eventually make them vulnerable to pests and disease.Use concrete blocks or even large weights that you brought along to anchor the tent and any other light shelters such as awnings, canopies, or screen houses if you are in a car or RV.Tie rope to concrete blocks and back to tent poles, then peg to the ground using your sledge hammer. Tie to trees nearby if you cannot use weights or blocks. Be sure to untie when you are done, as leaving the rope in place will eventually "girdle," the tree as it grows, killing it.

4. Lower awnings and canopies and lower window flaps when a storm is approaching. Close all windows on your vehicles as well. Put away anything that could be picked up by the wind and carried away. Once the storm hits, stay inside your car or RV, or head for a shelter.Take shelter against a cliff side or under an overhang, if you are backpacking with no vehicle,. Be careful using caves, as animals may already have taken shelter there. If necessary, call for assistance. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR SITE once you call for assistance. Stay as close to where you were when you called as possible without risking injury.Use flares if it is not raining, or a battery operated trouble light to mark your new position.

5. Check your campsite as soon after the wind dies down as it is safe to do so, making sure that everything is still secure. Evacuate and choose a better site if your original site seems too exposed.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose your site wisely: set up in the lee of a hill, embankment, or tree line.

• Bring a cell phone or CB radio with you

• Have flares, matches or a lighter, and battery operated trouble lights available

• Be prepared to evacuate your site if it is too dangerous

• Do not leave your site once have called for assistance unless it becomes unsafe to stay there

Resources

• Camping Safety for Kids
• Weather Safety while Camping
• Preventing Exposure
• Primitive Camping Primer
• Choosing Your Campsite