Florida's mountains: clouds

The sky was clear except for the thick clouds paralleling the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean off Patrick Air Force Base.

Several times in the past week, while steering my growling Harley-Davidson down the oceanside highway of Brevard County, I've noticed cloud banks offshore, dark at their base and sun-kissed at their peak. From the mainland, they appeared as snow-capped mountains in the distance, a sight that harks back to my visit to Denver, where there are panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains from the flat metropolitan area.

There are no mountains in Florida, of course. Unless you count the mounds of displaced dirt that litter the sites of retirement communities in the making. Even then, there's no snow. Though I'm sure you could find Florida snow in some of the shadier locales here.

Florida's weather, meanwhile, continues to be unseasonably cold and generally fair, spare the occasional squall lines that rake across the state and spawn tornadoes. My apartment's heater has done more work this winter than its air conditioner, something I would have never anticipated happening in Central Florida.