Bad-Weather Alternatives for Scout Activities

Bad weather doesn’t always mean cancelling a Scout meeting.

Rain, strong winds, cold temperatures and poor conditions can make your original outdoor plan unsuitable, but with a little preparation you can often switch to an indoor or lower-risk alternative without losing the purpose of the session.

The key is not to try to recreate the original activity indoors.

Instead, think about what the young people were supposed to learn or experience, and find another way of achieving that outcome.

This guide gives Scout leaders a collection of practical alternatives that can be prepared in advance and used when the weather changes.

Have a Bad-Weather Plan Before You Need One

The worst time to decide what you’re going to do instead is when everyone is already arriving in wet clothing and the forecast has just changed.

For regular outdoor sessions, keep a small collection of backup activities that require minimal preparation.

These don’t have to be complicated.

A map-reading challenge, emergency planning exercise, knot challenge, equipment investigation or indoor team game can often fill a session with very little setup.

It’s also useful to have a few activities that work in different spaces.

A large hall gives you more options than a small meeting room, but even a classroom can support plenty of useful Scout skills.

Rainy Weather: Bring the Outdoors Inside

Persistent rain is probably the easiest weather problem to plan for.

If a hike or outdoor skills session has to be cancelled, you can turn the same theme into an indoor challenge.

Navigation Alternative

Instead of going outside for a navigation exercise, give teams maps of a familiar area.

Ask them to plan a route between several points.

Introduce problems such as:

“The footpath is closed.”

“You need to avoid a busy road.”

“The weather is getting worse.”

“One member of the group cannot walk quickly.”

Scouts can calculate distances, choose routes and explain their decisions.

Cubs can work with simpler maps and obvious landmarks.

Shelter Alternative

Instead of building a full shelter outdoors, give teams a design challenge.

Provide paper, card, string or a small selection of camping materials.

Ask them to design a shelter that would protect a person from wind and rain.

They then explain why they chose their design.

This isn’t a replacement for practical shelter building, but it keeps the principles of weather protection, materials and planning in the session.

Waterproofing Challenge

Give teams a selection of everyday materials.

Ask them to predict which ones would provide the best protection from rain.

They can then test their predictions using a small controlled amount of water.

Keep the experiment simple and contained.

The important part is the discussion afterwards:

“What makes a good waterproof material?”

“What happens when water gets through?”

“How would you keep yourself dry outdoors?”

Strong Winds: Swap Outdoor Activities for Planning

Strong winds can make activities involving trees, shelters, loose equipment, fires or certain structures inappropriate.

This is an excellent opportunity to teach weather awareness and decision-making.

Give teams a fictional outdoor activity and a weather forecast.

For example:

“You planned a hike followed by a campfire. The forecast now includes strong winds and heavy rain.”

Ask:

“Do you continue, change the plan or cancel?”

Then ask them to explain why.

Give them additional information as they go.

The activity becomes a practical lesson in recognising when conditions have changed enough to require a different plan.

Cold Weather: Focus on Staying Warm

If it’s too cold for the planned outdoor activity, don’t simply replace it with an unrelated game.

Use the opportunity to explore how the body stays warm and how outdoor clothing works.

Teams can be given cards showing different clothing items.

Ask them to create an appropriate clothing system for a cold-weather walk.

They might have:

Then introduce different conditions.

“It’s cold and dry.”

“It’s cold and raining.”

“It’s cold and windy.”

“You’re going to be outside for several hours.”

Teams adapt their choices.

For younger sections, keep this focused on the simple message:

Stay warm, stay dry and tell an adult if you’re becoming uncomfortable.

Extreme Heat: Replace Exertion with Observation

Very hot weather can make energetic outdoor activities unsuitable.

Instead of simply moving indoors and abandoning the outdoor theme, use the opportunity for quieter activities.

A nature observation challenge can work well.

Young people can examine leaves, bark, feathers, tracks or photographs and try to identify what they see.

You can also introduce a discussion about preparing for hot weather.

Ask:

“What would you change about a hike on a very hot day?”

This can lead into water, shade, clothing, sun protection, pacing and recognising when someone isn’t coping well with the conditions.

Thunderstorms: Use the Weather as the Lesson

Thunderstorms are a good example of weather where changing the plan is more important than trying to find a way to continue outdoors.

Bring the activity indoors and run a weather decision challenge.

Give teams different weather forecasts.

Ask them to decide whether an activity should:

Continue

Be changed

Be delayed

Move indoors

Be cancelled

Then ask them to justify their decision.

This develops a useful leadership skill: understanding that stopping or changing an activity is sometimes the correct outdoor decision.

Poor Visibility: Run a Night Skills Session Indoors

Fog, heavy rain or early darkness can make visibility poor.

You can still teach many of the principles without sending young people outside.

Dim the room if appropriate and create a simple torch and communication challenge.

Young people can practise:

Avoid creating complete darkness or allowing young people to move around blindly.

The objective is to teach awareness, not to create an unnecessarily risky situation.

Snow and Ice: Turn It Into a Winter Planning Challenge

If snow or ice makes the meeting place unsuitable for outdoor activities, bring winter skills indoors.

Give teams a fictional winter expedition.

They must decide:

What clothing they need.

What equipment they would carry.

How they would manage water.

How they would communicate.

What would make them change their plans.

You can then introduce different scenarios.

“The temperature is falling.”

“Someone’s gloves are wet.”

“The planned route is icy.”

“The group is taking longer than expected.”

This gives young people an opportunity to think about winter safety without deliberately exposing them to dangerous conditions.

Indoor Emergency Planning Challenge

Almost any bad-weather cancellation can be turned into an emergency planning activity.

Give teams a fictional outdoor scenario.

For example:

“Your group has been delayed on a hike. The weather has changed and one person is tired. You need to decide what to do next.”

Teams identify their priorities and prepare a short plan.

For Scouts, ask them to include location, communication, equipment and group management.

For Cubs, use simpler scenarios and focus on staying together, staying safe and telling an adult.

Bad-Weather Activity Ideas at a Glance

When you need a quick replacement, consider matching the weather problem to a suitable indoor activity.

Heavy rain: Map challenge, waterproofing experiment, indoor campcraft

Strong wind: Weather decision-making, expedition planning

Extreme cold: Clothing and warmth challenge, winter planning

Extreme heat: Nature observation, hydration and hot-weather planning

Thunderstorms: Weather awareness and activity cancellation decisions

Poor visibility: Torch and communication challenge

Snow or ice: Winter equipment planning, route-choice challenge

Unsafe outdoor conditions: Emergency planning, survival priorities or teamwork challenge

Keep a Bad-Weather Activity Box

One of the easiest ways to make weather changes less stressful is to keep a dedicated box of backup resources.

It could contain maps, compasses, rope, cards, paper, pens, torches, simple construction materials and printed scenarios.

You don’t need expensive equipment.

The purpose is simply to have enough material to start an activity quickly.

You can gradually add resources whenever you discover an activity that works particularly well.

Build Alternatives Around Learning Outcomes

When planning your programme, write down the main purpose of each outdoor activity.

For example:

Navigation: understanding routes and using maps.

Shelter building: understanding weather protection and construction.

Campfire: learning fire safety and campcraft.

Hiking: planning, pacing and outdoor awareness.

Wildlife activity: observation and respect for nature.

If the original activity has to be cancelled, look at the purpose rather than the activity itself.

A cancelled hike can become a route-planning exercise.

A cancelled shelter activity can become a shelter-design challenge.

A cancelled outdoor cooking session can become a camp menu and equipment-planning exercise.

This approach makes your programme much more resilient.

Don’t Apologise for the Alternative

Young people often arrive expecting the original activity.

If the leader starts by saying:

“Sorry, we can’t do what we planned because of the rain.”

the alternative can immediately feel like second best.

Instead, present the change positively.

“The weather has given us a different challenge today.”

Then explain what the new mission is.

A well-designed alternative can sometimes be more memorable than the original plan.

When You Should Simply Cancel

Not every activity needs an alternative.

Sometimes the safest and most sensible decision is to cancel or postpone.

This is particularly important when conditions affect the safety of the meeting place itself, when travel arrangements become unsafe, or when leaders cannot provide appropriate supervision under the changed conditions.

Don’t feel pressured to continue simply because an activity has already been planned.

Good outdoor leadership includes knowing when not to proceed.

Leader Notes

It’s worth building a small collection of bad-weather alternatives into your programme before the season starts.

For every major outdoor activity, ask yourself:

“What would I do if we couldn’t go outside?”

If you can answer that question before the day arrives, changing plans becomes much easier.

Also remember that an alternative doesn’t have to be indoors.

A covered outdoor area, sheltered campsite space or different part of your meeting venue may provide a suitable option, depending on the conditions and your risk assessment.

The important thing is to respond to the actual conditions rather than trying to force the original activity to happen.

Learning Outcomes

By using well-planned bad-weather alternatives, young people can have opportunities to:

Final Thought for Leaders

A good Scout programme doesn’t depend on perfect weather.

Rain, wind, cold and changing conditions are part of outdoor life, and learning how to respond to them is itself a valuable skill.

The goal isn’t to find a way to carry on regardless of the weather.

It’s to teach young people that good preparation means having options.

If the original plan isn’t suitable, change it.

If the alternative isn’t suitable, change that too.

And if conditions aren’t safe, stop.

That flexibility is an important part of becoming a confident and responsible outdoor leader.