Tuesday, December 05, 2006

An alternative to snow

New England's got Noreasters and Buffalo's got Lake Effect Snow (I think that kind of snow deserves capital letters).

Here in Walla Walla, we get snow, too, but not very much and not very often. That's not for lack of cold - around here, the winters can get much colder than in New Hampshire (to pick an example at random), but we also get very little precipitation, maybe 19 or 20 inches a year.

What we have instead of snow is freezing fog (which the forecast calls for tonight, just like it does off and on all winter). Freezing fog tends to be on the wispy side for fog, though some nights it is damn near pea soup.

The result looks like hoarfrost, so winter mornings around here are often gorgeous, especially on the lucky days that dawn clear after a night of freezing fog.

A picture would probably be helpful here... I'll have to do something about that.

2 comments:

lulu said...

Buffalo has Lake Effect Snow? I thought Chicago was the only place that claimed that.

Alasdair said...

Lots of places get it! Wikipedia suggests Buffalo got about 82 inches of snow from Dec. 24-28, 2001, for example.

Even Salt Lake City supposedly gets some of that sort of snow...

Hokkaido would be the most impressive place for "lake" effect snow, with the wind howling out of Siberia and across the Sea of Japan - more than a few feet in the winter there :)