The Chinook

 

Our Savior!
The weather phenomenon that makes Calgary so livable is called the Chinook.
It's not unique around the world, but when it's -30 around most of Alberta, the Chinook is certainly the most welcome. It gives us a reprieve from the icebox bringing the temperatures back up close to zero and even +10 at times.
Needless to say, while the rest of Canada is living in an icebox from anywhere from -20 to -40, Calgary are "Basking" in sunny skies & above freezing temperatures. The margin for getting the benefit of the effect is quite small. Typically there band of warm weather runs from about 5kms from the foothills of the Rockies, to about 80kms out. This usually means Calgary is right on the edge. The narrow band of warm air is accompanied by clear skies & the boundary is distinctly marked by a cloud front (above).

Sunrise vs Moonset over the Rockies

The couple of days after the Eclipse were host to some pretty spectacular views from my desk at work. At the same time as the pink tint appeared in the sky from the Sunrise, the full moon set over the Rocky Mountains.

 

It was quite incredible to see how quickly the moon disappeared over the horizon. The time between the top photo and the one above was 18 minutes!
I quite the shot above as the moon was directly above the saddle in the mountains. If you look at the top photo, that same saddle is way over to the right of picture.
We're at the back end of our project at the moment and I'm struggling to get motivation to go to work, let along focus! Nature taunting me from across my desk isn't helping.

Lunar Eclipse

 

Tonight we had a lunar eclipse and for once in my life it wasn't in the middle of the night.

I gave the new camera (with zoom lens) and tripod a work out. I must have taken about 80 photos between catching the eclipse at different phases and mucking around with different camera settings. It was a good learning exercise with the camera. The only thing I couldn't get my head around was the little blue flare (see left & right pics). It seemed to be a reflection from the bright part of the moon bouncing around the long lens.

I'm now a bit dirty that I didn't have the SLR back in Oz last year when the comet went by.

Minus Stupid

Last week was bloody cold here in Calgary.

Monday morning we woke up to -32 with a wind chill factor dragging it down to -48! It only got up to -27 during the day. Tuesday a.m. was -34 & the top that day was -27 again. Wednesday morning was more of the same with -30. Finally by the afternoon was up to -15, but it's hardly a reprieve & -24 overnight wasn't either. The overnight temps were down around the -25 for the rest of the week & it wasn't until the weekend that it backed off during the day to -5. It's been a full week since the minimum temp was above -20.

I've been OK with the cold to this point, but once you get under -25, it's just plain nasty! You cover up every last bit of exposed skin, but you can't protect your eyes. They water like crazy to combat the stinging cold & the dry air. The biggest problem with that is that your eyelashes stick together. Makes it a bit hard to see.

Tomorrow's top temp prediction is -2! About time!