Tag: Weather

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Season’s End

 

What is surely the last hot days of summer came this week.  Today it rained and the forecast is for cooler temperatures.

But this week we sat on the banks of the Crooked River and sought elusive patches of shade as the heat of midday beat down on us.

Yes … fall is a favorite time of year, but more to the point, we like that there are four seasons.

That space when the seasons are changing offers a perfect blend of both. We manage to take advantage of what every season offers.

Right now, fall weather is overtaking summer. Crisp mornings require caps, scarves and even gloves for the walk. The required sweater will be shucked by afternoon but never far from hand.

Winter’s snow may be early this year, it may stick around longer and deeper, but for now, we are taking in what is best about autumn days and trying to catch migratory flights and Fall Caddis hatches.

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How’s the Weather?

 

Years back in Bozemen, Jim Murphy, a friend who grew up on the plains of eastern Montana, commented about feeling confined by trees and mountains. He didn’t like not being able to see the approach of weather.

At the time it didn’t make sense to me. There was lots of weather … you just had to look up.

I grew up surrounded by mountains forested with larch, spruce and balsam. We then moved to Pacific Northwest’s forests made dense by rain, doug fir and hemlock.

And then … we moved to Central Oregon and the edge of the High Desert.

Now Murphy’s comment makes perfect sense.

The sage and scrub pine open up to an expanse of sky that gives fair warning to any changes in weather. As well as what is happening in the next county.

 

 

Unrestricted by dense forest canopy, we’ve become observers of clouds, the sky and by default the weather. There are lots of trees and mountains around us, but there is also a great expanse of sky.

Near Biggs, Oregon

If you’ve been visiting this blog then it’s apparent we post a ton of images that take in the landscape and with it cloud formations.

We have regular day trips that carry us out into the high desert … just to observe and photograph clouds and weather patterns.

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Chasing Rain Clouds

A high desert spring day offered an assortment of cloudscapes, wildlife sightings, and a view of Fort Rock. The drive out Highway 31 towards Summer Lake is a tour through a variety of habitats, pine forest to lava beds and back.

This week’s escape from the house was a loop east on 31, out into the high desert and then back toward Bend and through a Ponderosa and lodge pole forest just south of Pine Mt. Observatory.

Partly cloudy forecast means something a bit different on the high desert steppes around Fort Rock. Here you can see the small storm cells moving over ridges. You’re greeted with bursts of sun amid the light rainfall.

The pocked face on the southside of Fort Rock didn’t offer up much raptor viewing. Song birds and ravens were in abundance, as was the occasional herd of migrating mule deer and antelope.

Not until we got near Highway 20 and were headed back to Bend did we encounter humans. As we headed home, trucks and their OHV loaded trailers headed to the network of paths crisscrossing the area.  By the time their engine noise filled the forest we were long gone.

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Thunder and rain

Summer camping got into full swing this week. We are doing short one and two day trips to fine tune the systems in our Eurovan camper. We will eventually do longer trips but for now we are working out kinks.

On a recent Crooked River trip we were treated to an afternoon summer storm. Watched it roll over the canyon walls and in about 30 minutes it was gone.

It took the muggy warm day and left us with a very pleasant evening. Fishing wasn’t all that good but we did get caught up on our reading.

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Watching the weather

The day begins with coffee, Weather Underground, and the crossword. It’s important to know what’s happening outside as you plan the day and week ahead. The high desert  has great vistas whose beauty is in the sky and clouds.

This particular morning there was a notice of thunderstorms on the forecast app. Always on the look out for weather picture opportunities, this storm was scheduled for late afternoon and seemed too good to pass up.

Deciding to document the storm we head east toward the Fort Rock area. This part of the high desert has a great expanse of sky. The plan was to get ahead of the storm and be set up to catch the action.

We opt for the Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge, offering a perfect location, just off Highway 31 near the the town of Summer Lake and to the north end of the town’s namesake.

This put us exactly where we hoped to be…surrounded by storm clouds. Thunder never materialized and for the most part we avoided rain and hail, all the time capturing images of the three or four different storm cells pushing up against the mountains to the east and west of us.

As icing on the cake, migratory birds were paddling around in the water ways. I guess the only down side were black clouds of mosquitoes. Even then the storm’s wind helped disperse the pests.

Finally, on the way back home and closer to Fort Rock, we managed to catch a tremendous sunset. A great ending to a day of weather watching (check out newest photo essay for more images of the storm).