Rising up a mountain road through the fog and mist, it seemed the cool, quiet and moist stillness, so stereotypically characteristic of the Olympic Mountains, would hold to the very ridge tops and beyond. Instead we broke out of the top of the stratus deck well below treeline, and hiked around those ridges for a few hours, only to peek over one crest and find that the stratus had risen further against the valley walls. If it looks like a cloudy puddle, that’s because it essentially was. Colder, more stable and moist air had nowhere to go but up the valley slope on a gentle east breeze, from the Puget Sound area. That usually is the drier, downslope side of the Olympics, but not on this day.
10 SSW Port Angeles WA (17 Jul 6) Looking E
47.9728, -123.492Valley Stratus
Rising up a mountain road through the fog and mist, it seemed the cool, quiet and moist stillness, so stereotypically characteristic of the Olympic Mountains, would hold to the very ridge tops and beyond. Instead we broke out of the top of the stratus deck well below treeline, and hiked around those ridges for a few hours, only to peek over one crest and find that the stratus had risen further against the valley walls. If it looks like a cloudy puddle, that’s because it essentially was. Colder, more stable and moist air had nowhere to go but up the valley slope on a gentle east breeze, from the Puget Sound area. That usually is the drier, downslope side of the Olympics, but not on this day.
10 SSW Port Angeles WA (17 Jul 6) Looking E
47.9728, -123.492