The drought has passed. It broke last week as the weather turned colder and wetter and less stable. The Gulf of Alaska high has deteriorated and we are living now beneath a grey blanket with the odd splash of sunshine. Yesterday reminded us of summer, today reminds us of the fall.

This season needs a name, this interregnum between the drought and the flood, when the sky seesaws between its offerings. It will be like this until the first big rain that leaves snow on the mountains, which will happen in a month or so. That is when fall and winter sets in and the salmon return.

So perhaps now, with the rains filling the creeks and sending freshets into the sea for the salmon to taste on their way home, we could call this "salmon-calling season" followed by "salmon return" and then, truly, winter.

Here is a Bowen moment of the first rain of salmon-calling season. (mp3)