The photos I'm showing today were from Oct. 29. My intention was to use them for my next post. But you know what got in the way. I had to show the snow photos from Nov. 2.
Oct 29 was a very nice day. We had a high of 15. The reason for the pleasant weather was that we had a chinook. We are fortunate to live in an area where we have chinooks as they brings very warm weather.
We live on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. The prevailing wind blows up on the western side of the mountains and dumps most of it's moisture. When the air moves over the peaks and down down on the eastern slopes it warms up. That gives us warm windy weather. In some areas and at times the air temperature will rise 50 Degrees F in an hour.
So what I intended to show with my photos is the chinook arch. A chinook arch is formed when air is forced up over the mountains and cools . Cold air not able to hold as much moisture forms the cloud and chinook arch. There are other places in the world with a similar weather phenomenon but different names.
If you look through the trees you can see a straight line showing the division between clear skies and cloud.
These are lovely!
ReplyDeleteToday I have much more snow. I haven't been outside.
DeleteThis is so cool. I'm glad you told us what we're looking at or I would have thought that was just snow between the trees.
ReplyDeleteWe were at Yellowstone National Park many years ago and there was a singer I really enjoyed who sang about the Chinook. Darn! I wish I could remember his name.
It must have been an interesting song.
DeleteWould you believe I just found the tape I bought of the singer with the song almost 30 years ago? I just scheduled it on my blog for February.
DeleteThe pro graphic precipitation pattern. IIRC they call it fohn in Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteThis type of situation happens in many places.
DeleteI remember chinooks from my days in Colorado. None here in the Pacific Northwest, I don't think. But I could be wrong. :-)
ReplyDeleteColorado would have some great chinooks. Were they called chinooks?
DeleteLovely photos of the trees, clear skies, and clouds. I remember something called Chinook winds that blew through Boulder, Colorado when I lived there in 1980s. It was fierce and wild, caused lots of damage. I think it reached speeds above 140 mph.
ReplyDeleteIn some areas the wind can be very strong. we are far enough away from the mountains that winds have settled down but we still get a strong wind.
DeletePretty cool! (Forgive the pun.) Your Centigrade scale always throws me. 15 sounds cold to me. Then I remember 16 C = 61 F. So yeah, pretty warm for Nov.!
ReplyDeleteSome of us (me) aren't very good at giving both temperatures. We've used Celsius for a long time. I only think in Celsius.
DeleteInteresting. I've never heard of this phenomenon!
ReplyDeleteI guess you've never lived in the west.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteThe Chinook sounds wonderful to me, I enjoy the nice weather. I am not ready to see snow or feel the cold winter temperatures. Pretty views of the sky and trees! Take care, enjoy your weekend.
We've now had two blizzards in three days.
DeleteWhat I would give for a Chinook or two but alas, no mountains!
ReplyDeleteDepending on how much snow is on the ground, you can lose all of the winter's snow.
DeleteWe have coastal chinook winds here, or just "chinooks", named after the Chinook Indians of the Columbia River area of Oregon and Washington. Costal chinooks are warm and wet, often melting snow and causing flooding. Yours are interior chinooks, warm and dry.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the arch. Of course we don't see that on the wet side. We are under the clouds.
Interesting that there are other kinds of chinooks.
DeleteWonderful photos, Red. At first I thought the clouds were snow until I read your explanation.
ReplyDeleteThe chinook arch is quite distinctive.
DeleteI had never heard about Chinook arch. Your weather is certainly important.
ReplyDeleteThe whole chinook is a different weather phenomenon.
DeleteWow, what an experience that would be, to have the temperature raise 50 degrees in a hour! The pictures are very cool, Red!
ReplyDeleteDepending on how much snow we have, we can lose all the winter snow.
DeleteDoes it cause flooding, that much snow melting all at once?
DeleteWow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the education! I didn't know what it was. Kansas doesn't seem to have too many chinooks.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it was a chinook, but I was on a tourist helicopter ride in Kauai. The copter slowed down as we went over the top of one of those beautiful, huge, green jagged mountains with cliffs. I figured out why: because he was gently moving into the wind coming up and over from the opposite side. We could feel it affecting the copter. Linda in Kansas
When air goes over a ridge it can become very strong. I've been on narrow mountain ridges and when strong winds occur you squat down so you don't get blown off the mountain.
DeleteInteresting meteorological story. I am curious about that tree in your neighbor’s yard with all the big red berries.
ReplyDeleteIt's called a big red berry tree.
DeleteSuch pretty light in your photos. We got snow today! In fact it's snowing right now. Big wet drops and the sky is dark unlike your sky. Keep warm.
ReplyDelete:0 I like the warm winds:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lesson Teacher Man... but I am certain that a chinook is a kind of helicopter.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting learning about the chinooks. Thanks Red!
ReplyDelete