A warm earth w/ cool overnight temps and no breeze have caused Fata Morgana for the past couple of days. The top picture is part of the distant Flambeau Hills as they normally appear. I took the picture in the afternoon after the sun's heat had caused the air to mix. The picture on the bottom I took right after sunrise. Overnight the atmosphere had settled into layers w/ significant temperature differences and hadn't yet begun to roil in the warmth of the day.
Fata Morgana is caused by light traveling a distance through differing densities. You can see that the bird houses, silo top, and tall jack pine are not changed - it's only the distant hills whose image looks elongated/stacked.
The term 'Fata Morgana' is based in mythology so I guessed it's origin. Do you know the derivation of the name?
1 comment:
Thanks for this picture and post. We saw this last week at our house and once last year. Almost eerie to see "mountains" surrounding us. We had no idea what this was called. Now we know!
cjb
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