Plaasabilities

"Sunstar and Ice" Rime ice covers the trees along Clingmans Dome Road.  Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  © 2014  Kristina Plaas, All Rights Reserved I was not born loving the wintry season. Darkness, cold, and snow were my sworn enemies all the years I lived in Salt Lake City. Bundling up to go outside is what you did when absolutely necessary. Rejoicing in frigid weather conditions is a new thing for me. Blame Clingmans Dome. Blame my photography addiction. Blame getting older and losing part of my senses. Blame technology which turns used plastic Coke bottles into soft, insulating fuzzy things to wear. Blame knitting, where woolly socks, hats, and scarves are inevitable. Never in a million years did I think I would ever wear longjohns (aka microfiber cuddle-duds) let alone be grateful for them, and polarfleece, and woolly socks, mitts, and hats. But as I was hiking to the top of Clingmans Dome yesterday or stopping to snap photos of cool things like sunrays bur...

"Dome's Eye View" Rime ice clings to trees on the slopes of Mt. Collins, Sugarland Mountain, and Mt. Le Conte as inversion clouds cover the valleys north and west of Clingmans Dome. Great Smoky Mountains National Park © 2014 Kristina Plaas, All Rights Reserved “Sometimes all it takes is a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a totally new light.”  Dan Brown ,  The Lost Symbol I learned a great deal about weather during the years I lived in Salt Lake City. In particular, I learned about temperature inversions -- a situation when atmospheric conditions keep clouds (and smog and pollution and germs) trapped in the valley between mountain ranges and clear, blue skies aloft. It's the one time when it's colder down in the valley than it is at the top of the mountain. After listening to local weather reports, I knew yesterday would be a perfect set-up for an inversion and blue skies at Clingmans Dome.  Most days the valley fog rises up, s...