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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
The hazard here is the rain - we only get rain in the winter, and each year, when the rains first start, people take no heed of it as they're driving and we seem to have a bunch more accidents on the road. I describe those early rains as "stupidity falling from the sky."I think that is generally true for any seasonal change. The first days of winter driving are always treacherous here, until you get used to leaving more distance to stop, remembering not to drive in the ruts, not spinning your tires when starting at a red light, don't brake during a turn (which you can otherwise get away with) etc., etc. I personally HATE winter driving, whether I'm used to it or not! 
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Have you ever seen ice fog?
FF are you talking about winter fog? When fog forms over snow or ice the water molecules are just this side of freezing. The second they hit something (your windshield as an example) they freeze solid and form a sheet of ice.
Quite inconvenient because you never really have enough windshield spit to last through the whole fog bank and you constantly have to refill reservoir.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Ooo Bean, I LOVE winter driving. Especially though big floofy-flake snow storms. True, people usually slow to a crawl, but you have to be at the peak of attention and I find it invigorating.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
Oh I do so love it when someone asks a question about something that I've just read before I forget it.  ...far more fog on the farm this year.No one can rightly question this observation. Even though general statements concerning weather by casual observers are highly subjective and therefore suspect. You were there and we were not. - -I agree totally with Bean and Bill and Hyla, but let me elaborate on some points that I won't remember next week... You can't see light. That is until it is reflected off something. In a fog the reflection is provided by little particles of fog, so it would seem that visibility would degrade with distance. It does but in packets, with some colors absorbed first, green and blues first, reds and yellows later. low beam yellow fog lights help ,but in a deep fog the human eye-mind needs a frame of reference in which to judge depth and relative speed. The backdrop of swamp and median would serve to contrast and distinguish the parallel lines of the interstate. More so, a concrete surface would reflect light better than green stuff. Well isn't that interesting, but it's probably has little to do with what you saw. - - I've noticed that even when the fog is nearly impossible to drive through on country roads without being in danger of going off the road, when I hit the interstate, the fog is divided between median and the woods, marshes, farmlands to the right. It appears to be a phenomenon. Radiation fog is the caused by the cooling of the ground at night. This allows evaporation at a lower dew point. The process of evaporation warms the air and radiates the warmth upwards. on clear star filled nights when there are no clouds to reflect the radiation back down to earth, fog is formed. This is probably not what you saw. - - An Upslope fog is formed when moving air is forced to rise upward over mountains where the atmospheric pressure is less, the air is cooled by expansion and the lowered dew point produces fog on the windward slopes of the mountain. No! -you didn't drive through this. - - Note: The high wet appalachians are the foggiest places in the contiguous states. More so than Oregon. I think.Evaporation fog occurs when a layer of cold air moves over warm water or warm, moist land surfaces. This results in fog formation as the water evaporates into the cold air. This is probably what you saw.Is there a name for what happens to the fog when you get to an interstate and the fog appears to be divided.Good heavens I hope not. If we keep on naming each and every thing and forget our adjectives, our mind will become so cluttered it will be like driving down the interstate in... split-pea-soup. -  -
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
I've had some very foggy days this week too, (fortunately, i don't have to drive, i take a commuter railroad to work,) but as i pass by one of the salt marshes, the fog is a soft mantle of white, drifting across the waters..
the same weather system that is causing the fog in NYC is a front of low pressure, that extents south, and west.. the curved line of this slow moving front extents from south and west of Richmond VA, all the away up to Boston.. it is moving slowly north and east, and i suspect WW, will have heavy thundershowers, tonight, or early tomorrow, they are expecpect to pass through NY about 5 PM tomorrow. and boston early saturday..
the low is filled with hot moist air up from the gulf of mexico, and behind it is a high pressure system the thunderstorms are a 'squall line' where the two systems meet.
skys today are clear blue and cloudless. and some of the fog is radiation fog.. but almost none is evaporation.. we are in the midst of a 17 month drought, and i wish the ground was cool and moist. We (NY) had normal rain fall for the month of MAY, but this is there first time since september 2000! NY and NJ reservois are all way below normal. (NY are at about 81%, not flush from winter run off and at 100%--as they should be.) NJ is in worse shape. the local EPA office is working with city and state agencies to raise public awareness of poor water uses, and to come up with solutions to save water.
the WTC site ate up thousands of gallons.. the fires there burned from sept 11 to November! and the dust from the clean up requires that the city use water trucks to wash down the street (now only 2 times aday, but for months, 4 or more times.)
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Wasn't that Carl Sandburg?Oops, uh, ummm, it's just a mild case of senility, that's all! I was in a fog when I wrote that. Milum, your post was right on target. Good work! Now, if you want to come out here to Oregon and sample our fog, limmie know!
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
That would be the stuff, though I don't recall hearing it referred to by that name, it clearly makes sense.
k
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