(View from the top of Sky Chair towards Bowen Island)Lately Vancouver has been experiencing a weather phenomenon called an inversion. Now, I know this term and had an idea about what it meant (especially since I had just experienced both sides of it), but having forgotten the lessons of Mr. Barron’s 9th grade Earth Sciences class, I thought I should consult Wikipedia to refresh my memory on the subject before defining it here for everyone to read! Basically, when colder air is closer to the surface of the earth and warmer air is above it (the opposite of what is normally going on) it is called an inversion.
(View of the city...the "island" is Burnaby Mountain)So last Wednesday while the city was blanketed with clouds and fog, Dave and I spent the day under nothing but sunshine and blue skies on Cypress Mountain. Looking down to Vancouver, all one could see was the layer of cloud/fog that covered up any trace that the city was even there. I guess it was sort of like being in an airplane, where you lift off and fly through the clouds and then reach a certain altitude beyond any cloud coverage. But it was really quite surreal and even somewhat discombobulating to not be able to see the city at all. I mean Burnaby Mountain poking out of the top of the clouds looked more like and island!
Even more surreal was that it was like we experienced a completely different weather day than anyone who wasn’t on the mountain. It was sunny, warm, and not a cloud in the sky. Driving down at the end of the day, we hit a certain point and that warm sunny day disappeared in an instant to be replaced by the cold grey day that had been occurring all day below us. Who knew weather could be so interesting and mind boggling!(ABOVE: View of Vancouver - no that's not more snow on the other side of the ridge, it's the city's skyline blanketed in clouds)
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