Tag Archives: Lakes

Commentary, nature, Photography

Lake Foggy

37 Comments

Okanagan Lake has been incredibly foggy over the last week.

The skyscape and moody, ethereal atmosphere has been incredible.

We have even experienced a very rare pink fog.

Photo courtesy of Dana Coates

Yes, a pink fog – there were no filters applied to the above photo. The heavy moisture content in the air caused the blue wavelengths of the rising sun to be scattered out, resulting in a pink fog. Further up the valley, the fog was actually red. This incredibly rare phenomenon didn’t last long; only about 10 minutes.

Pink or not, the fog is beautiful, and there’s one other advantage: any groundhogs lurking about will definitely not be seeing their shadows and sending us six more weeks of winter!

Happy Groundhog Day!

nature, Photography

Departures …

20 Comments

… from the usual February weather are a necessary little thing right now since many of us seem to be experiencing overcast and winter blahs.

Back in early June we stopped at a favourite winery.

We enjoyed a lovely view …

… a lovely glass of wine …

… and a lovely lunch.

Summer memories are great right now.

Happy Thursday.

nature, Photography

Snow Melt

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It’s nice to see the bright green winter moss and to also hear the gurgling snow melt water.

We have had a lot of rain which has made quick work of the frozen stuff, and it’s beginning to feel a teeny bit like spring might be on the way.

There’s a little snow at the higher elevations, but that won’t last long either.

Happy Wednesday.

nature, Photography

Winter Blue Hour

36 Comments

The blue hour occurs when the sun is lower than the horizon, allowing its blue wavelengths to become visually dominant.

Recently, I was out at just the right time to capture this phenomenon.

Although I was able to see the blue light, the camera’s lens saw it much better than I did and captured these beautiful cobalt blue skies.

Happy Monday.

nature, Photography

It’s Warmer!

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After our unusual and record-breaking Arctic blast that was quickly followed by a Pacific Ocean storm which dumped a record-breaking load of snow, it seems we are back on track. That means that we will return to our regularly scheduled rain, but in the meantime, we had a day of cloud clearing and sunny breaks accompanied by a pleasant temperature.

Cloud breaks over the mountains.
The weak ice near the shore of Okanagan Lake is starting to break into small pans.

Happy Wednesday.

Commentary, nature, Photography

Misty Skaha Lake

22 Comments

This sudden, very unusually cold weather has caused the lakes to discharge a lot of mist since the water is so much warmer than the surrounding air. Some people have photographed mist spouts, but I haven’t been fortunate enough to see any of them.

One nice side effect of this cold weather is that’s it’s sunny, but I’ll be happy to say to good-bye to the sun as it begins to warm up (and consequently cloud up) tomorrow; thankfully, we are supposed to be at near seasonal temperatures by Friday.

Coots, ducks and geese crowding together at the edge of Skaha Lake. They didn’t seem to be too bothered by not being of the same feather!

This Arctic blast has been very hard on all the non-migrating birds and the animals that just aren’t used to these cold conditions; farmers are also very concerned about the tree fruit orchards and the wineries about their vines. As an indication of how unusual this weather is, a local environmental group just released instructions on how to help hummingbirds that are going into torpor because of the cold.

Setting sun over misty Skaha Lake.

The eastern part of the country is now being walloped by a huge storm that has moved north from Texas. I don’t follow football but apparently a game has even been cancelled as a result!

Stay warm, everyone.