after how ever many weeks of lockdown it is, I've left the Calder valley on wheels only once. Last weekend I had to drive to Bradford to pick up a flute.
Following the dual carriageway along the middle of the Aire valley from Keighley towards Bingley and Saltaire I was struck by the wide, shallow valley and the gentle slope of the hills on either side. This contrasts starkly with Calderdale. The Calder valley is a steep sided, narrow cut in relatively flat uplands. Very steep sided.
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| Stoodley Pike, Calder Valley |
It's taken a while to notice the side effects of this. In Silsden I was halfway up the hill on the north east side of the valley, and very much subject to the blasts of the prevailing wind and rain. Here in Calderdale the experience is very different. Temperature inversions are commonplace - it's difficult to tell from the valley bottom whether the hill tops will be warmer or colder. The valley bottoms rarely get strong winds, they tend to blow straight over above us. On the other hand, it rains a lot and floods very easily.
Modern society is largely insulated from the effects of climate, and the interaction between climate and geology. Those of us who run on the tops see more of it, but you need to change location and be conscious of your surroundings to learn more about how it fits together.
