Sunrise, March 2009

The deck on the back of our house faces due south, but the best views are to the east. This sunrise was taken in March 2009. There are some interesting wave structures in the clouds towards the top of the picture. Steam can be seen rising from Plant Bowen, a coal-fired Georgia Power plant at Euharlee, Georgia. They are the dark, smokey-looking structures just to the right of the bright clouds where the sun is rising. The steam plumes are actually white, but look dark because the sun is behind them. The fact that the steam is white does not mean that the steam is without pollution. The plant gets its cooling water from the Etowah River, which flows into Rome, where it joins with the Oostanaula River to form the Coosa River. The Coosa is not visible from our deck, but it is in the foreground a couple of miles as the crow flies. We can sometimes see fog over the river, but not the river itself. Just downstream to the right from the area in the picture, the Coosa River flows past Plant Hammond, another Georgia Power plant. If we cut some trees behind our house, we’ll be able to see it, too.