Desperately Seeking Sunlight

Where’d the mountains go? (This should be said in your best Sarah Palinesque accent.*)

Both mountains and sky are barely visible these days.

Yes, it’s time for our winter inversions. The Salt Lake valley is basically a big bowl, surrounded by mountains. When the ground is cold, and the upper layers of air are warm, the air in the valley gets trapped, resulting in a smog-and-fog-filled valley. Sometimes it’s so bad you can’t see the mountains at all, or any hint of the blue sky above – just gray cloud cover. Fortunately, it’s not quite that bad yet.

When inversions come, the bad news is that we have to live in and breathe that nasty air, which obscures our lovely mountains and what would otherwise be beautiful blue sky.

The good news is that an inversion means that there IS beautiful blue sky and warm temperatures at higher elevations. Which means it’s only a short drive to get out of it, and up to some beautiful places where there’s sunshine and (relative) warmth.

That’s a great reason to head up the mountains, where sun and blue skies go on forever.

Ah, THERE they are!

And to enjoy a delicious breakfast with friends.

But eventually it’s time to head back home.

Hey, where’d the valley go?

Sigh. Once more into the breach, dear friends.

* If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here and click the window behind Sarah. Around our house, the running joke when we can’t find something has been to say “Where’d _____ go?”, in the appropriate accent, of course.