Fog

The mystery photo of Ben Wyvis

I was researching Ben Wyvis in Wikipedia for an article that I was writing and came across this incredible picture looking east from Loch Glascarnoch towards Ben Wyvis, with what looks like a shallow layer of fog covering both the loch, the A835 to its south, and the glen beyond. I would guess the picture was possibly taken on high ground to the south of the loch, and judging by the direction of the shadows on the fog layer at around lunchtime.

The credits show that the picture was taken by D.J.MacPherson with a creation date of 2009-01-02. At first I thought that there had been some kind of trickery involved with its production, but when I checked the weather chart for midday on the second of January 2009 and found it had been a frosty, clear anticyclonic day in the northwest Highlands with fog reported at Aviemore and Kinloss which seemed to fit. The only odd thing is that there’s no proper snow cover on Ben Wyvis.

What clinched it was when I checked the NASANASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. EOSDISEOSDIS The Earth Observing System Data and Information System is a key core capability in NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems Program. Designed and maintained by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, it is a comprehensive data and information system designed to perform a wide variety of functions in support of a heterogeneous national and international user community. Worldview visible satellite image for that day.

So my bit of amateur “meteorological sleuthing” paid off 😉

Fog over Ireland

Dear Diary
A fair bit of fog over Ireland still lingering in the river valleys such as the Shannon well into this afternoon. Temperatures are still well below freezing in places, so some of it could be of the freezing variety. CBCB Cumulonimbus cloud. Well-developed cumulonimbus clouds are characterized by a flat, anvil-like top tops across the NW and N of Scotland as well as a line of them running into Liverpool Bay. It looks like the W’NW wind blowing over Exmoor and Dartmoor is triggering some downstream stratus across east Devon, but I could be wrong.

December 9, 2022

Fog, Satellite

Fog over Ireland Read More »

The Great Smog of London

The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted from Friday 5 December to Tuesday 9 December 1952, then dispersed quickly when the weather changed.

The smog caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severely than previous smog events, called “pea-soupers“. Government medical reports in the weeks following the event estimated that up to 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog’s effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests tha

Courtesy of Wikipedia

December 6, 2022

Fog

The Great Smog of London Read More »

Fog persists across Easter Ross

Looking east to Knockfarrel from the Cat’s back
Line of distant CBCB Cumulonimbus cloud. Well-developed cumulonimbus clouds are characterized by a flat, anvil-like top across the NENE North East of Aberdeenshire

The overnight fog has been persistent across the Cromarty Firth and Straths and glens of Easter Ross this morning. In fact temperatures are still subzero after a moderate overnight frost. Here in StrathpefferStrathpeffer Strathpeffer (Scottish Gaelic: Srath Pheofhair) is a village and spa town in Easter Ross, Highland, Scotland, with a population of 1,469. temperatures fell to -3.5°C in the first frost of the Autumn. The fog looks to be around 300 feet thick or so and is blowing up the strath from the east. Higher up above the inversion at around 750 feet there’s a 5 to 10 knots wind blowing from the south. So as well as fog blowing up the strath from the east some is blowing up and over the ridge of the Cat’s back from the south. You can barely see what all the fuss is about in the lunchtime satellite image.

The view north from Knockfarrel towards Ben Wyvis
My shadow cast a faint gloryGlory A glory is an optical phenomenon, resembling an iconic saint's halo around the shadow of the observer's head, caused by sunlight or (more rarely) moonlight interacting with the tiny water droplets that comprise mist or clouds. The glory consists of one or more concentric, successively dimmer rings, each of which is red on the outside and bluish towards the centre. Due to its appearance, the phenomenon is sometimes mistaken for a circular rainbow, but the latter has a much larger diameter and is caused by different physical processes. as I walked along the ridge.

November 21, 2022

Fog, Frost, Scotland

Fog persists across Easter Ross Read More »