Weather patterns here in our region are very simple – the weather is good all year round with a few colder days in winter and some rain between October and March, with most of the precipitation falling from January on.
We also have something called ‘June Gloom.” Nasty minded people not from the region insist that this is just a nicer name for smog. Well, let them wag their tongues, but the June Gloom is a natural phenomenon easily explained:
Around the middle of May, when the inland temperatures are already quite high, the Ocean temperatures are slowly rising, too. Marine clouds form, which are then blown towards the coast, settling there in the morning. By noon all clouds have then burned away and it is sunny as always. This condition prevails until approximately end of June.
This morning, however, we had real fog. The palm trees looked quite pretty in this soft gray and cloudy light. But by 7:25 AM the fun had ended – it was a typical California morning again, with blue skies and sunshine.
Fog is beautiful, eerie, and the way it muffles sound is spooky. I like it so long as I don’t have to drive in it. I’ve always loved Carl Sandburg’s poem about it.
Fog
THE fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
What a delightful poem. Thank you.
Over the weekend I have to look up Carl Sandburg. He sounds just like my kind of guy.
As to fog – well, I have had my share of it. Many, many a morning I had to drive through fog so thick that one could hardly see 15 yard ahead. Compared to that the fog around here is just decoration, making everything pretty, not the heavy duty stuff I had to cope with.
By far, my favorite Sandburg poem is “Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind”. It’s a bit reminscent of “The Rubiyaat of Omar Khayyam”. Somewhat pessimistic, but comforting somehow too.
I stuck my nose into some Carl Sandburg. Nice. After the first sniff I will work up to a substantial bite of his work. I am already looking forward to a wonderful experience.