Royal Meteorological Chronicle: Gothic Mountain Stillness
A wan and spectral sunlight filters through a fractured canopy of cloud, its pale beams falling upon the mist-wreathed shoulders of the Carpathian peaks like the gaze of some indifferent eye. The firmament, though partly sunny, wears the aspect of a veiled spectre, for the cloud cover clings at thirty-five parts in the hundred, and the light that reaches the snow-line is thin and ghostly. No moon is visible, though the waxing gibbous orb wheels unseen above the vapours, its influence felt only in the subtle tug upon the blood and the barometer alike.
The instruments upon the ridge tell a tale of uneasy stillness. My thermometer stands at fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit, while the dew point lurks but seven degrees below, and the hair-hygrometer swells with the damps of the valley mist. The mercury in its glass prison rests at twenty-nine inches and ninety hundredths, steady as a corpse, while the wind from the north-northeast whispers at but two knotsβcalm air, yet laden with the chill of the tomb. A light mountain mist coils about the lower slopes, and the atmosphere is heavy with that Gothic stillness which precedes the stirring of old ghosts.
Let the traveller who would brave the passes take heed: the stillness is deceptive, for the mountains hold their breath, and the steady barometer may yet betray the unwary. The mist thickens where the shadows fall, and the pale sun offers no warmth to the bones. I counsel the wearing of wool and the carrying of lanterns, for the night comes early and the spirits of the crags are restless.
Meteorological Readings & Barometric Log:
β’ Atmosphere: Gothic Mountain Stillness
β’ Temperature: 54Β°F / 12Β°C / 10.0Β°R Mountain Chill
β’ Barometer: 29.90 inHg - Steady
β’ Wind & Squalls: North-Northeast 2 kts Calm Air
β’ Station: Scarlet Ridge Observatory, Transylvania
β’ Observer: Alistair Sterling, Atmospheric & Barometric Scholar