Though hiking is fun there are many ways that weather can negatively impact you experience and its imporatant to understand hoe they can effect you and plan accordingly.

1. Rain /Snow

Heavy rain and the cold temperatures that usually accompany it can be dangerous when doing any outdoor activity.  When hiking it can easily cause you to slip, fall, and injure yourself. If the rain is heavy enough it may cause you to get lost washing away important markers. In general it is best not to hike in when you see cumulonimbus clouds, which are a type of convective cloud, they indicate thunderstorms and are usually associated with strong/violent updrafts and other bad weather phenomenon such as lightning and hail. Hiking in a storm like this could cause you to be hit by lightning or anyother object that becomes dislodged in the storm. On the other hand, when hiking in colder snowier conditions, like behind a cold front, one must be aware of the dangers of wind chill and hypothermia. Hypothermia is when your body start to lose heat faster than it makes it, due to extreme cold temperatures; In extreme cases this can result in death. When preparing for a trip it is important to also account for wind chill, which is not the actual temperature, but the temperature it feels like to a human due temperature and wind. It is important to dress appropiately for the preceived weather conditions so you can be comfortable all throughout your hike. 

Image source: https://www.callingforthewild.com/what-to-wear-on-winter-hikes-snowy-trails-are-easy-when-you-know-the-basics/Links to an external site.

2. Visibilty 

Visibilty can cause many issue when hiking especially if you can not properly see the trial. One visibilty related hazard that may cause problems is excess fog. Fog is a cloud made of slow moving water droplets that is suspended above the ground. It can form in 2 ways 

• When water is added to unfoggy air 
• When unfoggy air is cooled to the point where the water vapour in the air starts to condense to liquid droplets (dew-point temperature)

both mechanisms can produce thick fog which can limit visibilty and cause a hiker to get lost or seriously injured. Depending on the terrain of the trail you are taking not being able to properly, see the ground or what is infornt of you. This could cause you to trip and fall, which can be especially dangerous when climbing/ hiking steep mountains. This is why it's best to avoid hiking in extremely foggy conditions. Fog is most likely to occur in areas where humid air is cooled, so it's best to avoid hiking late at night or very early in the morning. This is when the air is most likely to be cooled to its dew-point temperature. Also, since cold air is denser that warm air it is likely that fog will start to flow and accumulate downhill in valleys; It's good to keep this information in mind so you can plan ahead and be prepared during your next hike. 

Image source: https://www.summitpost.org/here-s-the-trail-on-a-foggy/123596Links to an external site.

3. High Altitude Hiking 

Though I'm somewhat of a novice hiker my mother is very experienced and when she was young she would often hike moutains. My favorite story of her's is when she tells me about how she hiked a mountain in the himalayas. She often said it would get extremely cold at night and at certain point it would get hard to breathe. This is why I often think of the hazards that one can encounter in more serious hiking situations like climbing mountains. High altitude can bring on extreme temperatures and can cause problems like hypothermia like I previously mentioned. However, in addition to that there is one more hazard that can impact hikers who like to climb to high altitudes and that is reduced oxygen. As altitude increases the amount of oxygen in the air decreases, but the amount of oxygen you need to survive stays the same. This means with every breathe you take you are not getting as much air as you would when you are at sea level. This can be extremely dangerous, especially since when hiking you are excercising and therefore expending even more air that when you are at rest. This means at certain altitudes it's possible for you to start getting a little loopy, which you definitely don't want when you are hiking up a mountain. The term used for when you are loopy is hypoxic and it is when you are suffering from insufficient supply of oxygen and in certain situations hypoxia can be fatal. Therefore, it is important to properly plan your trip and bring necessary supplies to avoid being hypoxic, so you are able to make responsible and well informed desicions on your adventure.

Image source: https://www.themanual.com/travel/best-high-elevation-hikes/Links to an external site.

Information source: 

https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc113/flying/met_concepts/01-met_concepts/01h-fog/index.htmlLinks to an external site.

https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc113/flying/met_concepts/02-met_concepts/02b-oxygen_physiology/index.htmlLinks to an external site.

https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc113/flying/met_concepts/01-met_concepts/01a-clouds/cumuliform.htmlLinks to an external site.