Microclimates

Last month’s drive up to the Sunshine Coast started out poorly with snow and slush and ended up with a completely icy road. And the next two weeks were no improvement. Today, we started out from Point Roberts to the Coast enrobed in the persistent fog we’ve been having for the past four or five days. Not so bad you were at risk while driving, but still, pretty foggy. I was surprised to find that there were little patches of snow here and there as we drove up south of Vancouver. And then more surprised as we got farther up on the east side-drive-around to find considerable amounts of snow all over the place. Somehow, they’d been having quite different weather than we had in Point Roberts, even though it’s barely 20 miles away.

Then, of a sudden, the fog disappeared and the Vancouver sky was as blue and as big as the eye could manage to take in. The sun was shining everywhere. After a month of cloud and more cloud and lower clouds plus fog, my eyes were hard pressed to adapt to this glaring light. It was like being back in L.A. on a summer day. By the time we got out to North Vancouver, the remaining snow was getting more extensive and the fog was coming back and the sun and blue sky were definitely no longer with us. And as we approached the ferry terminal, visibility was getting pretty limited.

We boarded the ferry and had the good luck to be the first one on the ship in the outside upper lane, so we had a good view of the water. Except that the fog now had become so thick that there was no view of anything. I couldn’t really tell whether the ferry was even moving so deprived were we of any reference point. The ferry sounded its foghorn every few minutes and I thought about being out in that water and hearing that sound and, given zero visibility, trying to figure out what you would do in response. Not good at directions under the best of circumstances, I suppose I’d just run into the ferry or manage to let it run into me.

After about 45 minutes, it was apparent that we were near the end of the trip because people we’re getting back in their cars. Nevertheless, there was no sign of any shore or dock. Then, about 150-200 feet ahead, a slight outline of dock emerged. I guess they made the whole approach, the whole trip practically, on instruments.

Once off the ferry, there was still fog, but not so thick. By contrast, there was snow everywhere. Either it’s been very cold up on the Coast over the past two weeks so most of the previous month’s snow is still on the ground, or they’ve had more snow because when we left, the snow was starting to melt and, in Pt. Roberts, it’s been entirely gone for the past two weeks. On the other hand, at our house, when we arrived there, we found absolutely no sign of snow. This is a climate of microclimates, but I’d never seen it illustrated quite so extensively and definitively. Clearly, there are half a dozen kinds of bad—or at least undesirable--weather, and everybody up here has had some of them, but nobody has had the same selection. I wince to think what comes for the next two weeks, and bid my good wishes to the four daffodils I found this morning, pushing firmly up from their bedding.