photo #6637664

The opposite shore of Lake Erie from J Pogalies (Member 62,612) in Madison, Ohio, US is in Canada, more than 50 miles (80 km) distant. You can’t see land even on the clearest day. ‘Imagine my surprise,’ said J, who’s lived on the shore of this Great Lake for decades, ‘when I looked out my window one evening to find a mountain range had suddenly sprung up!’ She was disappointed to see it vanish not long after. The transitory illusion was a bank of advection fog. This fog forms when warm air moves over colder water or ground, and some of its moisture condenses into water droplets. The dark grey clouds overhead were Stratocumulus, and beyond, pale yellow in the evening light, were higher Altocumulus and Altostratus clouds. The sudden appearance and disappearance of her ephemeral mountain range reminded J of lyrics from a 1967 single by Donovan. ‘First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is,’ she hummed to herself.