How does fog form anyhow?

DISCUSSION: During a typical Summer or Winter morning (or sometimes during the evening to overnight hours), there are often scenarios in which a given region can have a substantial amount of warmer and moistened air flowing in overnight. In such scenarios, it is quite common to find an atmospheric phenomenon such as fog as a result of the increased presence of warmer, moister air into the given region. This process acts to increase the regional dew point temperature which will allow the regional atmospheric environment to get closer to the actual air temperature. When the dew point does indeed reach the actual air temperature, this is the process most commonly known as and referred to as atmospheric saturation. When the atmosphere becomes saturated, this is when fog is most likely to form as the air parcels in a region reach the maximum holding capacity for water molecules that they can at a given air temperature.
 
It goes without saying that fog can be an incredibly dangerous precedent for any and all forms of ground and air travel. The primary reason for why fog is such a major hazard to general travel is because any type of fog can seriously impact people’s ability to have longer distance visibility when driving or for any pilot’s ability to see sufficiently well when attempting to fly a plane. For example, limited visibility can prevent a pilot or driver from being able to have enough depth perception when it comes to perceiving possible threats or obstacles in the path of a given vehicle or aircraft which can often make a typical trip quite troublesome even on an average day. Therefore, it certainly makes sense for why advisories such as dense fog advisories exist across the National Weather Service network in order to help protect average citizens from placing themselves in the path of danger when it comes to navigating around areas of dense fog when they do indeed occur.
 
The bottom line here is the message that whenever a major fog event unfolds, it is imperative for anyone and everyone in the path of a current or upcoming fog event to respect the natural power that the atmosphere holds. In addition, whenever there is a threat for an incoming fog threat, is it always best to plan your travel accordingly and avoid doing unnecessary driving through very dense fog since that can sometimes be a life-threatening issue if visibility gets down to 100 feet or less.
 
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© 2019 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz