Katabatic Flow on Mt Taranaki

Flying to Wellington yesterday morning on a more inland route than usual I got to watch these clouds flow down the western side of Mt Taranaki. Pretty amazing, I thought, but not amazing enough for the captain to say anything… so maybe this happens all the time. Just for reference, the pointy peak there is over 8000 feet. It’s a big ol’ volcano.

I didn’t know what to call it when the wind flows downhill like that, but luckily I’m re-reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars which had a reference to katabatic winds this afternoon. That slightly assuaged my guilt at reading something light when I could have been digesting a report on European Immunization Registers.