Seldom are the Olympics seen like this. An eerie, otherworldly aura of light, shadow and vapors suffused the valleys and mountainsides on this cool morning, when a slowly eroding inversion layer held dense smoke from three active, month-long, lightning-initiated wildfires tightly against the undulating terrain. Overhead, a thickening cloud layer aloft sandwiched the thin band of relatively clear air between. This scene was fleeting, with dawn shortly before, and diffusion of the layers by mixing and rain soon after. Fortunate timing alone allowed us to experience this strange marvel nearly to ourselves, on an early Sunday morning, before the weekend recreational crowds arrived.
11 SSW Port Angeles WA (28 Aug 16) Looking S
47.969, -123.4987