Fogged in (and out)

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

The current conditions here in Vancouver are making me feel right at home.

Vancouver, this morning

York Minster, most winter mornings
Thick freezing fog does such strange things to everyday noises. Last night I was waiting to cross a main road, right next to the huge cemetery1 that famously marks the “dead centre” of Vancouver. As the traffic started to slow, the sky suddenly exploded with all the intensity of an overhead thunderstorm. After several seconds of sheer panic, I finally pinpointed the source as a plane taking off from the nearby airport – just a few kilometres away as the 747 crow flies. With images of the New York City crash fresh in my mind, I feared for the lives of the people on board, for surely that noise could not indicate a healthy trajectory. But the plane continued to climb, and the noise gradually morphed into the usual aircraft sound that I probably hear every single night at that same location, but just never really notice.
Unfortunately the fog also seems to have infiltrated my brain. An idea for a stellar NN post flashed into my mind as I was writing an email on Wednesday. But by the time I’d hit “Send”, the idea had vanished, never to be seen again – as elusive as the physical fitness I’d built up over four months, but that has abandoned me after three weeks of inactivity.
This is what happens when a new project is described as “a great learning experience for you”. Acquiring this amount of new information over such a short timeframe is not good for me, and results in the jettison of other useful thoughts. Apparently I have no excess memory capacity, the majority of my brain being taken up with old song lyrics and movie plots.
Including The Fog. Perhaps we’ll rent the remake this weekend – my husband worked on the sets, including a large (~ 20 foot) scale model of the the lighthouse, but I just don’t think the movie as a whole can possibly match up to the original.
I do have to go into the fog again tonight, but I am more wary of drivers whose stopping distance exceeds their visibility than of vengeful leprous ghosts.
——————-
fn1.Familiar to many an X-Phile, although personally it’s the last place I’d visit.

About Cath@VWXYNot?

"one of the sillier science bloggers [...] I thought I should give a warning to the more staid members of the community." - Bob O'Hara, December 2010
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12 Responses to Fogged in (and out)

  1. Kristi Vogel says:
    January 17, 2009 at 12:11 am

    Our overnight forecast is for fog as well, but nothing close to the kind you have in Vancouver. My first encounters with freezing fog occurred in the Pacific Northwest, and I remember how strange it felt to walk or ride my bicycle through it. And I tried photographing the famous San Francisco fog last year, but didn’t succeed in capturing its magnificence.

  2. Cath Ennis says:
    January 17, 2009 at 12:31 am

    It’s very cool. I’d love to be up in the sunshine on the top of one of the local mountains, looking down on the blanket of fog covering the city, with the occasional glass skyscraper poking through. The stuff we have at the moment isn’t all that photogenic, unlike the wispy mist I sometimes see rising up from the cemetery, with the North Shore mountains in the background. (Do I ever have my camera with me on these mornings? Noooooooooo).
    I’ve always been very lucky with the weather in San Fran, so I haven’t seen the famous fog that inspired the original movie.

  3. Kristi Vogel says:
    January 17, 2009 at 1:03 am

    Here’s my San Francisco fog photo:

    Rolling in, late afternoon.

  4. Kristi Vogel says:
    January 17, 2009 at 1:07 am

    Needs the Carl Sandburg poem:
    _The fog comes
    on little cat feet._
    _It sits looking
    over harbor and city
    on silent haunches
    and then moves on._

  5. Eva Amsen says:
    January 17, 2009 at 5:14 am

    I was in San Francisco in August, and failed to see the GG bridge properly, because every time my friends or cousin drove me past it, either the top or bottom was covered in fog.

  6. steffi suhr says:
    January 17, 2009 at 8:04 am

    A couple of years ago, while I was at MBARI for a meeting – they have a gorgeous conference room with panoramic windows looking out over the beach and the sea – I could not believe how quickly the fog moved in. And I agree, fog definitely affects one’s brain!

  7. Sabine Hossenfelder says:
    January 17, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    Where did you get these photos from? That’s the view from my balcony!

  8. Cath Ennis says:
    January 17, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    Spooky!
    “Don’t go into the fog!”

  9. Darren Saunders says:
    January 19, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    After a week of it, “The Fog” got too much for me yesterday so I headed for the hills. Amazing what a few thousand feet of altitude can do when there is a good temperature inversion…

    I could see all the way to Mt Rainier at sunset, and it was warmmmmm 🙂

  10. Cath Ennis says:
    January 19, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    Wow – amazing photos. I’m so jealous, I might have to report you for commenting when you’re supposed to be worki…
    oh, right, better not.
    How was the snow? I was put off Whistler this weekend by tales of Spring conditions and/or ice.

  11. Darren Saunders says:
    January 20, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    Hmmm, think twice about that report 😉
    Let me put it this way about the snow at Whistler… after a day up there last week, my skis are in for base repair and edge tuning before I head to Colorado next week. Cypress was good but some fresh snow would be good

  12. Cath Ennis says:
    January 20, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    Yikes – glad we passed on the Whistler trip on Sunday!

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