Category Archives: weather

Lake ice

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Alistair

  My mother told me of the winter of 1934-35 when the Lake at Nelson froze and people and vehicles could cross on the ice. Indeed, a number of early reports and photographs tell of sternwheelers battling widespread ice on the West … Continue reading →

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Snowflake’s view

Posted on February 7, 2017 by Alistair

  It is snowing. Here is one snowflake’s view as it drifts down to join its colleagues in a forest.

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Season of devils

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Alistair

  For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die….                               … Continue reading →

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Green ice

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Alistair

  And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald.            Samuel Taylor Coleridge  (1798)            The Rime … Continue reading →

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Circumzenithal Arc

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Alistair

  It wasn’t the best I had seen, but this display of haloes in the direction of Nelson was better than any I had seen for a few years. I was alerted to it by the sight of a circumzenithal … Continue reading →

Posted in scenes, weather | 6 Comments

Katabatic wind

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Alistair

  A recurring theme of mine over the years has been that of a katabatic wind: the gentle stream of air that flows down a mountainside overnight. Indeed, I wrote about it fifty years ago, again this year with 23 cm/s, and with … Continue reading →

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Making waves

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Alistair

  It may seem odd that I consider the picture below to be special. As a shot of a muskrat swimming, it is distinctly ho-hum. But, as a shot characterizing water waves, it is long-sought superb. This demands an explanation.  Almost any … Continue reading →

Posted in mammals, weather | 2 Comments

No lollypop

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Alistair

  I tried, but I didn’t win the lollypop — but I did manage something almost as good. I rarely fly anymore, but when I do, I ask for a window seat away from the wing. There are things that … Continue reading →

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23 cm/s

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Alistair

  Katabatic wind: a usually gentle wind of cool air that drains down the mountain slope overnight. When the sun warms the slope and the air above it, a katabatic wind usually stops. Yestermorn, I was watching the languid drift of steam … Continue reading →

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Fallstreaks

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Alistair

  When I was in elementary school, I was taught that when water has a temperature of less than 0 °C (well, 32 °F at that time), it is (invariably) a solid called ice. And I was told that it is a liquid … Continue reading →

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