20 Bushcraft Tips: Heavy Rain & Wet Weather Conditions

foreign we experience an average of 159 days of rainfall each year this means that for a large part of the Year we're having to light fires with wet damp wood in less than ideal conditions here are a few tips on how to light fire in wet conditions using nature to your advantage as a result of spending a lot of time outdoors in wet weather I have adapted my Bushcraft kit to help me get the best chance of getting a fire going in any conditions lately I've kept a simple one meter square piece of waxed canvas in my kit it doesn't take up much space but it has many benefits which I will show you later in the video the first and arguably the most important part of wet weather fire lighting is to try and find the driest wood to do this look for dead branches that are higher off the ground branches like these Scots pine ones are ideal as there is plenty of resin that builds up in the joint where the branch meets the tree picking sticks up that are directly on the ground is not really ideal as much of the moisture from the ground will seep into the wood and it will take longer to dry out that's not to say you can't get a fire going with it it just means that you will need to spend more time processing it down to make a viable piece of kindling whilst this particular Branch here looks like it has ideal twigs for kindling they will have sucked up the moisture from the forest floor and will remain wet for a few days it's best to choose Twigs that are high and dry and about the thickness of a pencil to check whether a stick is dry enough it should snap cleanly as it breaks if it snaps but pieces of bark still hold on then this wood is still green I.E it has not been dead long enough but all of the moisture to have left the wood this type of wood will still ignite in a fire but only when a fire has been burning for hot and long enough for it to do so it's not ideal for the beginning stage of fire lighting we've had rain on and off for the past few days and there is a thunderstorm coming which is why I chose to make this video on this particular day as I know the weather is changeable fast here in the UK this is where the waxed canvas sheet comes in handy I place my Twigs in kindling on top of the mat and this stops any moisture from the ground seeping up into the wood as I go to collect more material it's natural fire lighting resource that is available to me in this area is by far the bark of the Silver Birch Tree here is a small piece I collected earlier that day and to show you how flammable it is I'm going to soak it in this small body of water and ignite it after shaking off the excess water you can see that the bark is still completely saturated and if I hold a lighter to it just watch how quickly it takes to Flame once that initial surface layer of water has evaporated the reason why it burns so well is because the outer bark contains betulin which is what causes the bark to be white but also protects the tree from Bugs pests and disease the bachelin is highly flammable and it will often produce a black smoke as the oils burn off when you first light it whenever I see Silver Birch when I'm camping or out in the woods I will always try and keep a small piece in my pack to stay dry for when I next need it for fire lighting but what if you don't have birch bark near you well you can still get a fire going you just need to use a different method remember when I spoke about not using damp sticks from the forest floor well sometimes you might have no other option in this case find the driest part of the wood and cut out a small section that is free of any knots or side branches ideally it needs to be as straight as possible here you can clearly see these two pieces of wood I've cut are wet on the outside but on the inside they're relatively dry if we can expose this dry wood then we'll have a much better chance of success for our fire I split the wood in half by using my knife add another stick as a button once it's split open the wood is nice and white which means it's dry so despite the fact that wood looks wet on the outside the bark is actually what keeps the inner wood dry all that is needed is to expose that dry inner wood Now using my knife I make fine curls towards the bottom of the stick these need to be as thin as possible but not too thin that they fall off a stick by doing this I'm getting to the innermost part of the wood which will be the driest once I've made a big enough feather stick I tend to make a number of very small thin shavings with the tip of my knife you don't have to do this step but again given that the wood is wet it's offering the best chance possible to get that fire going I don't tend to cut any Corners when lighting fire with wet wood I then lay a few sticks down to act as a raft and keep my fire off the ground fire needs heat to continue burning if I try to light the feather sticks directly on the ground the cold from the saturated Moss is going to sap the heat from the fire and lightly stop it from burning well I keep a small fire still in my kit at all times I Lay My Fire still on the stick so that it is directly opposite those fine shavings that I just made I then shower it with a fuse box the fine curls ignite first and then I tilt the feather stick vertically so that the fire climbs up through the curls you don't have much time before the fire starts burning Through the Wood and so I place a second feather stick on top to grow the flame ideally a third feather stick will give you more efficient burn then it's just a case of laying the feather stick down onto this layer of sticks and slowly adding small pieces of kindling on top and gently building the fire up as it burns another small item that I keep in my pack at all times is a lightweight top this one is a three by three meter one by DD I'll link to it below but any tarp can be used to make shelter I just opt for one that is very Compact and small if I know conditions are going to be wet then often I will stuff my tarp in one of the side pockets of my backpack this is where having a lightweight thin tart is useful at one end of the top I will have some cordage tied to it and this will be the last part that I put into the pocket of the pack this side pouch is just over a liter and the three by three meter tarp fits snug and the zip can be done up and now we wait for the rain many times I've been out in the woods and the weather has caught me off guard the forecast has said no rain but I've suddenly been hit by a downpour and had little time to get undercover this is why I have honed some of my kits that I'm fully prepared for this if you haven't checked the weather before you've gone out on a trip you can often tell when bad weather is about to hit signs I look out for is a sudden drop in temperature the air feels cool and fresh and the wind will start to pick up and whilst this might feel nice when you've been cutting up firewood get ready as you won't have long before the rain arrives this is a weather front and depending on the strength of the wind you need to be ready to deploy a shelter quickly and this is where my favorite top shelter comes in find a tree any tree will do but preferably one that is sturdy I pull the cordage out of the pocket and tie this corner of the tarp to the tree I try and tie it as high as I can as three meters will offer quite a bit of shelter and the higher I tie this corner of the top the steeper the angle will be to shed water however if you want more space underneath your shelter then tie it around head height now I just use the weight of the backpack to pull out the remainder of the top by keeping it inside the pocket like this not only does it allow for quick deployment but it also means that the tarp doesn't blow and flap around everywhere in strong winds now it's just a case of pecking out each tie up point at the top trying to keep the material as tight as possible I can set this top shelter up in less than three minutes and have all my gear in the dry to stop the kindling I have collected earlier from getting wet again I just roll the wax canvas sheet across it and it keeps the rain off alternatively I could put the kindling under my top but then the ground under the tarp is already damp with the firewood prepped and sorted and the gear dry I then make some final adjustments to the top you can see that even in this heavy rain the water just runs off this wax canvas sheet I decided to leave it outside to see how dry it would keep the wood as I said earlier the best natural material for fire Lighting in this area is silver birch bark and so I use my knife to scrape the outer bark into a fine dust pile just underneath the outer white layer is where the flammable oils of the bark are now on under the top I can take my time getting the final preparations of the fire ready the ground in this particular area is saturated all year round it's basically a bog which is another reason I chose it for this episode despite the fact I don't really need to clear an area for a fire because the ground is so wet I still think it's good practice to do this as I want to be able to leave no trace of fire once I pack up camp as I demonstrated earlier I create a raft using small sticks if you want to increase your chance of fire you can split slightly larger sticks in half to create a flat dry area to build your fire on now I use that wax camber sheet to protect the birch bark from the rain this imperative that the birch bark powder is kept as dry as possible it will still ignite when wet but it will take longer to burn the more saturated it is once the dust pile ignites you have a few seconds to keep the fire going to do this I peel off a number of thin strips of the birch bark and get this lit from that first Flame it can take a while but relying on the dust pile alone to get your Twigs ignited isn't enough you need to get that flame going for an extended period of time and to do that I carry it over to small strips of bark once these small strips have a more established flame then I lay the Twigs down on top of it you'll notice that I place the horizontal stick underneath the Twigs before I laid them down this is so that I can raise and lower the Twigs to allow more oxygen to help the flame catch the Light throughout the early stages of the fire I keep my body hunched over it to try and keep the rain off with the rain being so heavy it could easily put the flame up and here's a top tip I won't put the next layer of sticks on until the flame rises above the previous layer of sticks and I apply this to all of my fire Lighting in both dry and wet conditions too many times over the years I've put a fire out by putting on too much fuel too early and smothering it when a fire is only just going I find it best to let the flame creep above the first layer of sticks before adding the next layer this allows the heat to build up at the base of the fire as well as allowing more oxygen in once the flame is well established then I don't have to hunch over it anymore as the heat at the base of the fire is enough that providing I keep adding fuel to it it won't go out if your fire is still struggling at this point then it doesn't hurt to add more oxygen by blowing Into the Fire you only really need to do this at the beginning stages or at least until you have enough of a roaring Flame and now you can relax and enjoy some time in the woods thank you for watching the video feel free to subscribe and if you enjoyed this type of episode be sure to check out my Bushcraft and survival skills playlist on my channel I will put links to the Gear used in this episode in the description box below and check out our other YouTube channels life of Mike and ta fishing thanks for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: TA Outdoors

Views: 986,216

Keywords: 20 bushcraft tips, bushcraft, survival, survival tips, survival skills, wilderness survival skills, stealth, stealth camping, camping, outdoors, ta outdoors, taoutdoors, survive, bear grylls, ray mears, bear grylls survival, ray mears bushcraft, alone, wilderness, nature, heavy rain, rain, wet weather, wet conditions, how to light fire in the rain

Id: jrjPZGvtRIc

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 25 2023