Bewitched before the Midnight Hour

Tuesday, another hot day in a sequence of unusually hot days.  This day was a little different, though, because a nice breeze kept things cool enough to be tolerable.

Unlike Monday, which was far too hot for me, and which broke records in several coastal towns.   In fact, Alaska set higher temperatures than most of the US west, except in those places where gila monsters and rattlesnakes live (where no humans should, either).

I went kayaking Monday evening at Tern Lake.  Pulling into my driveway at 9 PM, that Midnight Sun was still shining brightly on my house.

At 10:30, I glanced out an east-facing window and saw a wall of dark gray heading this way.

When the promised rain began, I stepped onto the back deck and got this photo of a faint rainbow as the sun pierced through the cloud bank.   The combination of dark clouds, rain showers, and late sun made for some fantastic colors.

This was at 11 PM.    The sun is on the upper parts of the mountains.

Here's the progression of the sunset in the west:


11:23 PM:

11:30 PM:

11:37PM:

11: 38 PM

These photos give as accurate a representation of ambient light as I could manage with my Nikon Coolpix..   I had to decrease the camera by several stops to get close.

Hard to stay in bed with that Ol' Midnight Sun putting on a show like this, and obviously, I didn't.