05 January 2012

Skywatch Friday: Warm Winter Weather

The holidays are past, the tree is down, and I've settled into a comfortable pattern of cross country skiing each morning before heading to college and working on my lectures for the upcoming semester in China. Our unseasonably warm weather continues here in southwest Montana--most days are running 10 to 15 deg F above average--daytime highs in the 40s! Global warming I guess. Remarkably, the snow pack up in the foothills (where the ski trails are) is holding on. And the sunsets continue to be absolutely stunning--is there a volcano erupting out in the Pacific to the west of us?

On the way home from a rare late afternoon ski yesterday, I had to pull over on The Moulton Road three times to take in the amazing sunset:

The colors and intensity just got better:

And better:

Until, finally, the light faded from the sky and I could get on home to supper:

On a suggestion from my old neighborhood friend Gary Robertson (oh the miracle of FaceBook!), I set my little Canon Elph camera to "cloudy" for photographing sunsets. It results in a color balance with boosted reds and violets--much closer to what my eye really sees. Thanks Gary!

20 comments:

  1. You sure have been getting beautiful skies!!!
    We have been having so much cloud, that, when this morning was sunny, I was so busy with my camera that I was late to work. Fortunately, Thursday and Friday are my days at the office, where nothing is time sensitive in January...

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  2. Beautiful, dramatic skies and what terrific captures! I do love the bare, blackened trees against the colorful skies -- they make great exclamation points! Hope you have a great weekend!

    Sylvia

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  3. These are so beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

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  4. What great photos! Yay! Of course, the air pollution in China is terrible (I happened to go to a workshop on the subject today) so the sunsets should be most enjoyable there, too :-)

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  5. beautiful skies..and great tip about the camera!

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  6. What lovely colours!

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  7. That is so funny that's what I did yesterday to. I kept pulling over to take sky shots. Great capture

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  8. I might have picked the wrong winter for my walkabout, although it's been low 80's here for a couple days. Nice pictures, I miss seeing the mountains. Happy New Year, Pat.

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  9. Those are stunning sunsets for sure, Pat. Returning to the routine of post holiday life is appreciated here as well. Yesterday we broke the all time high temp by 5 degrees. The big guy and I took a long hike...

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  10. Outstanding shots of sky-beauty! Amazing hues! Just love looking at your pictures
    : )

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  11. My yes, outstanding sunsets! I shall have to try that camera setting myself next time. Thanks for the tip!

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  12. I know it's different this winter. Here in MI we are in the 50F, first time in the history. And I so love your sky so festive! Happy weekend!

    SWF

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  13. That is a real stunner, isn't it? Can you imagine seeing it, and not having your camera with you?

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  14. WHAT IS WITH this spring-like weather? Though the mountains 6 miles away got a little snow in November, and another little flurry 2 weeks ago, we haven't had a spot of snow down here. I'd heard it was supposed to be a colder and wetter winter than normal. They were wrong!
    Great sunset shots again. We had a spectacular one the other night.
    - The Equestrian Vagabond

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  15. These are so good... sometimes you just have to pull over, don't you? Well worth it.

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  16. Your sunset is gorgeous. We're having unusually warm weather, too, and we have no snow on the ground. That's good for riding, but not so good for summer water supply.

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  17. These are gorgeous skies! I think I would love the landscape, maybe even enough to overlook the really cold days and nights.

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