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When we asked our smart speaker this morning for the Penticton forecast and heard "Partly cloudy with mist," we were intrigued. It's not often you get "mist" in the forecast.
So we looked out the window and there it was. A low-hanging, meticulously defined layer of fog laying across the entire valley floor. It looked like a blanket. Or a comforter. The softest, squishiest comforter there ever was.
The blanket was -- maybe -- a hundred meters tall. And above it, perfectly clear pre-dawn conditions.
It was still a half hour to sunrise, so we jumped in the car and rolled down the hill toward downtown. There, the new day was entirely different. The cloud blanket hung over the city like a menacing threat. There were no stars above -- only grey. You could feel the dampness in the air. Ack.
Back out of the bowl we made our way to Munson Mountain, where once again all the cloud was beneath us and the first vestiges of sunlight were wafting in from the east.
Here we had our best look yet up and down the valley, and it was glorious in all directions.
According to Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon, this morning's phenomena was a product of "temperature inversion."
"What we're experiencing right now is valley fog and low cloud as well," he said. "Basically we have a ridge of high pressure building in southern BC. And with that is a lot of warm air aloft.
"The warm air acts as a cap on anything beneath it. So in the valleys, any moisture that’s already there, with the cool temperatures in the valley, will be trapped. And that's where we see the fog."
That ridge of high pressure aloft will hold in place over the weekend, said Sekhon, meaning there's a chance of a repeat of today's spectacular show Saturday and/or Sunday morning.
"It's tricky though," he added, "to predict whether the fog will burn off during the days coming up. The question is whether the sun will get through. It's either going to be clear and sunny or foggy. But we have no expectation of precipitation."
One final note for skiers and winter mountain maniacs. Sekhon warns that the temperature inversion will produce warmer temps "at higher elevations and in the mountains. "
"So obviously with that comes the threat of avalanches as well," he said.
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