Calling All in Transit

Tuesday 19th June. 11.55pm. Northern Ireland, around 90 miles north of Dublin.

This may be the scene in homes across the globe:

The travel arrangements are made, accommodation booked. The luggage lies open - what to pack???

The weather on this landmass over the last week has been erratic, to say the least. Sweltering heat, thunder, lightning, torrential rain, hailstones and gale-force winds. The snowdrifts must surely be on the way.....

None of this gives any indication of the potential contents of the suitcase. Excess baggage limits notwithstanding, the habitually cautious would pack for any weather eventuality. Using this as the yardstick, the audience at the Olympia on the 30th will be dressed thus:

Bikini/swim trunks
Yellow fisherman's oilskins
Snorkel
Ray-Bans
Factor 50 sunscreen
Woolly scarf
Rubber soled snow boots
Water wings/armbands/rubber ring

So what to do?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the BBC website is the font of all knowledge on any given subject. So I checked their weather section: www.bbc.co.uk/weather

UK-based, it covers global locations, but only gives a 5-day forecast (too limiting for those travelling great distances). Still, it's better than the Irish offerings (www.ireland.com/weather and www.met.ie), which give 2 and 3 day outlooks respectively.

The best long-range site gives a 10-day forecast, and can be found at: http://uk.weather.com. In my experience, it's not 100% reliable, but then which weather site is???? Current info indicates scattered showers up until the 28th, so nothing can be ruled out. Back to the drawing board......