law·rence | /ˈlόr-ən(t)s/
Lawrence is a macabre synonym for a heat haze – the shimmering distortions that rise from sun baked tarmac, railway tracks, desert sands, and the like. It derives from the grizzly death of Lawrence of Rome, an archdeacon who, in 258 CE, was given three days to gather and deliver the churches’ wealth to the Emperor Valerian. Lawrence was outraged and bravely decided he’d rather give it all away, for which he was punished by being roasted to death on a gridiron. On the upside, he was posthumously sainted.
A Lawrence is the result of light passing through turbulent thermal currents of rising warm and falling cool air. As light passes through the expanding warm air, it speeds up. Then, when it passes into the denser, cooler air, it slows and refracts. If the boundary between the warm air and cool air is relatively stable, it may reflect the sky above it, creating the infamous mirages of ever-receding lakes that can lead desert wanderers fatally astray.
If a layer of warm air sits above a layer of cooler air, this can create a superior mirage. As the light passes though this relatively unusual temperature inversion, it bends, sometimes creating bizarre illusions such as large ships out at sea apparently floating above the horizon. If the temperature inversion bends the light at the same rate as the curvature of the Earth, it is possible to observe distant objects that are actually below the horizon or to see the sun well before it has actually risen.
Introduction Aeolian Alpenglow
Benthos Crepuscular Crispate Crown shyness
Desire lines Dreich Endragoned Edgelands
Frondescence Fumarole Gluggaveður Gossamer
Karst Komorebi Lawrence Long acre
Machair Monkey’s wedding Moonglade
Psithurism Quartz Rakuyou Roaring forties
Snag Soft estate Specular, diffuse and pellucid
Spoondrift Steam fog Swash zone Sylvan