Micro Climates

Burlington, VT

No LL

Right now in the early afternoon, I'm looking across the lake to the West. I can see the closest Adirondack Mountains. I can see massive cloud

Right now in the early afternoon, I'm looking across the lake to the West. I can see the closest Adirondack Mountains. I can see massive clouds above the mountains. I can also see that the clouds stop at the Lake Shore. In fact, in this gray rainy day, there is a hole in the clouds showing a bit of blue sky. The size and shape of the hole rougly match the shape and size of the lake. That's a micro climate.

The visual effects are stunning. The closest mountains are about 3,000 feet high. The clouds go about another 15,000 feet higher. That makes a nearly vertical cliff-like face on the clouds 15,000 feet tall. Wow is that spectacular.

I've seen this micro climate effect many times before on Champlain. The most common effect is the one I just described, a cliff-like wall of clouds extending vertially abvove the west shore of the lake. At other times, the effect is the opposite. The surroundings can be clear while the area above the lake is covered by cloud or by fog.

Perhaps the most beautiful effect I'll never see again as long as we live on Tarwathie. That effect comes on warm sunny days in the early spring. The heat of the sun melts water on top of the ice, and then evaporates that water. One sees water vapor lifting off up into the air in long streaming trails. When it gets a few meters above the ice, it forms fog. A few tens of meters above that, the fog burns off and the air is clear.

A photograph? I'll try, but I've tried before to photograph these beautiful scenes, but the pictures don't really show the beauty.