Season's Greetings From Inversion Hell
It's day four of Reno's first big winter Inversion of the year, and my nerves are starting to fray just a bit.
Inversions are the only climatological bugaboo about this part of the world that really gets to me. I don't mind the cold temperatures that bother some people, and I don't really even mind the Washoe Zephyr, the fierce winds that blow in off the mountains in the summertime. But inversions just plain depress me. For those of you who don't know, Inversions take place in wintertime in mountain valley regions, like the Truckee Meadows where Reno is located. Warmer air layers high in the atmosphere trap cold air in the valleys like water in a bathtub, and because the cold air just sits there in a pool it fills up with moisture and pollutants, leading to dense fog. These miserable weather patters can last for days or in some cases even weeks until a strong weather front comes along to plow them out.
The one refuge from the pea-soup fog and cold temperatures is, ironically, going up to higher elevations. The town of Truckee is only about two thousand feet up from us in the Sierra, but that elevations change is usually enough. Sometimes as you drive up I-80 the fog lets up gradually, but it isn't at all uncommon to burst out of the soup all at once like a dolphin breaching the water. The sudden blast of unblemished sunshine can come as something of a shock when you've spent the last few days swimming in a dingy gray mess. It's not uncommon for Reno residents to drive to Truckee just for lunch on days like today, just to get out of the fog.
The National Weather Service says this inversion may be here through the week. I'll have to find some excuse to make my way up into the mountains soon. Luckily, for me finding such an excuse is never difficult.
Inversions are the only climatological bugaboo about this part of the world that really gets to me. I don't mind the cold temperatures that bother some people, and I don't really even mind the Washoe Zephyr, the fierce winds that blow in off the mountains in the summertime. But inversions just plain depress me. For those of you who don't know, Inversions take place in wintertime in mountain valley regions, like the Truckee Meadows where Reno is located. Warmer air layers high in the atmosphere trap cold air in the valleys like water in a bathtub, and because the cold air just sits there in a pool it fills up with moisture and pollutants, leading to dense fog. These miserable weather patters can last for days or in some cases even weeks until a strong weather front comes along to plow them out.
The one refuge from the pea-soup fog and cold temperatures is, ironically, going up to higher elevations. The town of Truckee is only about two thousand feet up from us in the Sierra, but that elevations change is usually enough. Sometimes as you drive up I-80 the fog lets up gradually, but it isn't at all uncommon to burst out of the soup all at once like a dolphin breaching the water. The sudden blast of unblemished sunshine can come as something of a shock when you've spent the last few days swimming in a dingy gray mess. It's not uncommon for Reno residents to drive to Truckee just for lunch on days like today, just to get out of the fog.
The National Weather Service says this inversion may be here through the week. I'll have to find some excuse to make my way up into the mountains soon. Luckily, for me finding such an excuse is never difficult.
posted by Yukon Sully | 10:43 AM
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