Beauty on the Bay

I am so blessed to do what I do! Not only do I love the weather and everything about it, I get to correspond with people who are as passionate about it as I am. I am thrilled when their passion is trumped only by their curiosity.

Earlier this week I received an email question from Ginny Stoddart from Aylesford, N.S.; I was happy that she attached a beautiful photo!

Ginny wondered what type of cloud she saw and commented that it looked like a waterfall touching the Bay of Fundy.

The cloud is in fact a fog roll. By definition, fog is a cloud whose base is touching the ground or in this case the water. Fog and clouds are formed by water vapour; the water vapour necessary for this roll came from the below…

When a warm, moist air mass moves from the land over the cold water, the cold air just above the cold water will cool the air mass from below, bringing the temperature right down to the dew point allow for fog to form quite quickly. This type of fog is called advection fog.

At the time the photo was taken, the prevailing wind was moving drier air into the leading edge of the wall of fog, not allowing further formation, but instead, holding it back and pushing it down, creating a waterfall effect.

I’ve witnessed it before but never quite like this. Thanks to Ginny’s keen observation and curiosity, we all had a chance to see how incredibly beautiful nature can be! Cindy Day is Saltwire Network’s chief Meteorologist