WEATHER Zero visibility again...from FOG

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Nights like tonight always remind me of an old George Carlin joke:

"Know why God invented fog? So you can see just how f*cked up your headlights really are."

I actually drove past my turn off tonight. Normally you can see our pole light for a mile, but tonight it's more like 30-40 feet. I finally pulled off the highway and called home to tell my husband to drive to the end of the road so I could find it. But he had also missed the turn off and called home to tell me to drive to the end of the road, yada yada yada. Anyway, I had to go an extra four miles to get my bearings again so I could turn around. I drove the last half mile or so on the shoulder and I STILL almost missed our road. I did miss the end of the driveway and ended up driving through the hayfield (it's really flat and everything is snow covered). But we both made it home.

At one point, I was going maybe 20mph (in a 65mph zone) with three cars behind me and no oncoming traffic--and no one would pass me.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Answers

Man, that was a real pea-souper! We used to get those in England every fall and winter but then heavy restrictions were placed re air pollution (back in the late 50s, I think), and things greatly improved. It was a nasty smog causing a large number of deaths that prompted the air pollution laws, I believe. 'Course, I doubt your fog was caused by pollution but I do know what that sort of fog looks like!

We're on Stage 2 water restrictions, i.e., voluntary, and likely to go to Stage 3, mandatory, soon. Stage 4 is when it gets really bad. Fingers crossed.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001


Big K, glad that you made it home safely! We have "micro climate" here. That is, it can be "pea soup" fog right next to the river and perfectly clear over on the freeway.

OG, it's clear and dry (also 62 degrees!). Snow is in our forecast for this weekend. If that incoming storm doesn't look like it's going to track through your area, I'd suggest continuing the water conservation preparations that you mentioned on another thread.

I have the green tips of bulbs emerging from my flower beds. I just heaped another three inches of mulch over them. Would that it were spring, but freezing temps will be back in about 48 hours. Black tips are just soooooo depressing.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001


"At one point, I was going maybe 20mph (in a 65mph zone) with three cars behind me and no oncoming traffic--and no one would pass me."

BK, the other Carlin joke would have had all the cars behind you pulling into your driveway also because they didn't have a clue where they were either and hoped that you did.

Glad you made it back ok. That kind of folks always unnerves me.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001


A horrendous source of fog can be evaporating snow. I know this because I was stuck at O'Hare once for two days because of that, two days out of my Christmas vacation. The whole Mid-West was churning out fog.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

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