The Fun Kind of Fog

Duck

Sarcastic remark goes here
The other night I was running across Minnesota on I-90. I kept my high beams on most of the time.

I was running in & out of fog, but it was hovering in layers about 15-20 feet thick. It's relatively flat there, but there were still some hills you don't even notice unless you turn down the stereo so you can hear the turbo winding up & down.

The fog seemed to be holding a fixed altitude above sea level, not ground level. On these mild ups & downs, I'd climb a few feet up into the fog momentarily, then I'd come out above it, then go back down, etc.

Sometimes the top of the fog would be level with the top of my hood, so with my high beams on, I'd see how they light up the fog, but I could see objects in the distance clearly over the top of the fog. Then I'd come to a slight downhill & go back down through the fog, then come out underneath it. Sometimes the bottom of the fog layer would be right on top of the truck so I could see the road just fine, and with my high beams on, it would light up the fog.

I love driving in that kind of stuff with my high beams on, especially when I'm the only one on the road & don't have to worry about idiots getting in the way & then slamming on the brakes when a tiny puff of cloud is lingering 3 feet over the pavement.

It's not like the sucky kind of fog where you have to go slow & use your low beams & hope there's no retard at a dead stop, or some maniac going 80 mph coming up behind you.

And now I'm wondering what kind of atmospheric conditions are required for the type of broken fog layers I described to exist, and what keeps them at such a perfect altitude that's unaffected by mild elevation changes of the ground.
 
Easy..... when the air temp is lower than the ground temp and there's lots of moisture in the air (from snow or open water).

We got this kind of thing very often in winter in the Canadian "port city" where I grew up; especially in the harbor. It's termed "Sea Smoke" because that's what it looks like.... smoke rising from the water. Kinda pretty but damn it's cold.
 
Freezing fog. Ick.

Been dealing with that a lot this winter.




It's not what you had. I think that type is neat, too. But freezing fog really sucks. Especially at night. With rain. Freezing rain. Ick.
 

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