What's With the Fog?

If you've been up early the past several mornings, you may have noticed a few small areas of thick fog. This morning though the scene is a bit different for most of the area, with a dense fog advisory in place for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin(with the exception of Jo Daviess county).

Visibility this morning has been at a quarter mile to just a few hundred feet. As always, you'll want to flip on  your low beams and take is slow as you head out the door.

Fog develops with the help of clear evening skies and light winds, those at least are the basic ingredients. But why does it form?

Well outside in the atmosphere there are millions of invisible particles and molecules. During warm afternoons those molecules move around very quickly. Because they are moving so quicky, they miss any attraction to other particles in the atmosphere.

But as the sun sets and temperatures cool, those particles slowly start to slow down. As this happens, those molecules are attracted to the other particles and attach. The gaseous water molecules will then condense onto the particles, which creates the fog! The name of the temperature at which this occurs is called the dew point temperature! Its a really cool process, but one that causes a lot of headaches for travelers. Some reports state that fog related accidents are the most common weather related traffic accidents.Take is slow this morning!