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A few things were evident while I was flying my paraglider:
a) although there is a nice big fat high pressure system right over us, there is a very unstable boundary layer at 3,000 metres which is the cloud base - the aerological diagrams show a massive inversion layer and strong cross-winds at that level. Paragliding today we could get to the cloud base but it was very rough turbulence, and no higher.
b) after the storm the previous night, some snow remained on the ground even at 2pm from Leura to Mt Victoria, and quite a lot of water around on the ground. It was quite wet past Lithgow. Meaning the air over the mountains is saturated with moisture.
c) in the prevailing westerly airflow the blue mountains force the air up, so it cools, and clouds form. As the air passes over the eastern side (the Hawkesbury) it descends and warms up enough that the cloud disperses. This was going on all day, though in the late afternoon things were cooling down and the cloud now extends over Sydney.
BTW the satellite photos show it was/is clear west of about Orange, all day.
Sunday should be a nice clear day in the mountains.
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