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October 5, 2007

All about fog with fog all about

Car accidents, frizzy hair and a general yucky feeling; byproducts of those low-lying familiar fall clouds known as fog.

Morning fog is fairly common after the longer, clear fall nights, when leftover summer heat, stored in the ground, can escape the atmosphere without getting bounced around by clouds or counterbalanced by sunlight.

Your turn: How foggy was it this morning?

That lost heat causes the temperature near the ground to drop rapidly, bringing it closer to the dew point.

Fog forms when the temperature cools to within 5 degrees of that dew point – the temperature at which the air is saturated with water molecules. Once that happens, water droplets break free from the air and condense into those close-to-the-ground clouds.

This morning, at 5 a.m., the temperature in Providence was 61 degrees, the dew point 59 and the fog, thick as molasses.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie Jefferson

Posted by Brandie Jefferson  at 8:14 AM | Permalink

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