It’s odd that we say a heat wave broke when it ends, but it would seem a little unusual to say a cold spell broke.  In any case, the ice is melting from Seattle.  Not that we were buried under it or even got any snow to speak of, but it’s been so cold for so long that large patches of ice have formed on streets and sidewalks.  Last week, I went for a three hour bike ride, and half my water bottle froze.

This cold spell coincided with a week of beautiful sun.  I was drawn out into the sub-freezing temps like a moth to a flame, and I was far from the only one.  As I stood for an hour at the sea shore at the edge of Golden Gardens waiting for the sun to set, countless other people strolled along the beach.

More than anything else, this experience has reinforced something I knew intellectually, but not experientally.  Cloud cover is a giant blanket, trapping in a layer of heat that would otherwise radiate off into space.  Of course this is one reason why deserts tend to be so cold at night.

Several years ago, I was camping with a (now ex) girlfriend in western Colorado.  We kept getting stuck in the rain.  After a few days of wandering aimlessly through a downpour, we put our elementary knowledge of how micro-climates work to work, and spent the next night drying off.  Ever since that experience, I’ve been keen for a free lesson in climatology, when one presents itself.  But I’m only able to recall these lessons when I pick them up in a salient manner – books just don’t help.

PS – Our recent cold spell was caused by an arctic front, and has killed most of the non-native plant species in peoples’ gardens, if these facts interest anybody.    Sure beats last year.