Wednesday, February 26, 2014

CHINOOK

A Chinook Arch is really something to see. It is never the same twice, and changes moment  by moment. We are lucky to live where we can see the Arch right out our living room window. The colors were so brilliant this morning. I had to take three photos to get the scope of the entire skyline. The background is done entirely with spray. Hint to recreate is to use a good quality artist paper for the background. Spray and dry before mounting your photos. If you look along the bottom edge, I brought the photo into the background by using a simple tree  stamp to extend the trees and shrubs into the lower part of the layout. 
Read more as well as a Supply list visit
  • Chinook: (shĭ-nʊk', chĭ-n.
  • A moist warm wind blowing from the sea in coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest.
  • A warm dry wind that descends from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, causing a rapid rise in temperature. [Short for Chinook wind.] A mild, dry, extremely turbulent westerly wind on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and closely adjoining plains. The term is an Indian word which means “snow-eater,” appropriately applied because of the great effectiveness with which this wind reduces a snow cover by melting or by sublimation. The chinook is a particular instance of a type of wind known as a foehn wind. Foehn winds, initially studied in the Alps, refer to relatively warm, rather dry currents descending the lee slope of any substantial mountain barrier. The dryness is an indirect result of the condensation and precipitation of water from the air during its previous ascent of the windward slope of the mountain range. The warmth is attributable to adiabatic compression, turbulent mixing with potentially warmer air, and the previous release of latent heat of condensation in the air mass and to the turbulent mixing of the surface air with the air of greater heat content aloft. In winter the chinook wind sometimes impinges upon much colder stagnant polar air along a sharp front located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains or on the adjacent plain. Small horizontal oscillations of this front have been known to produce several abrupt temperature rises and falls of as much as 45–54°F (25–30°C) at a given location over a period of a few hours. Damaging winds sometimes occur as gravity waves, which are triggered along the interface between the two air masses

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