In a fog (Or, I *told* you we'd have 60s in March!)
I had to go back and find the entry where I promised 60F temps, because we've got 'em. Every day this week has been warmer than the next. I've been walking around in shorts and a T-shirt at times. Now *this* is what we've been waiting for. Take that, coldest-February-on-record.
When we started the week, there was still a fair amount of snow on the ground. It's not as if we got *that* much snow this year. In fact, I realized that at no point during this past winter did my car door hit a snowbank upon opening. That was par for the course last year, and in fact was part of how I realized I was parked correctly (if I was too far over and didn't hit the snow with my door, that blocked my parents from getting in and out of the garage, because with another snowbank on the other side of the driveway, there wasn't any room for them to move over). It's just been so cold that the snow couldn't really melt. I mean, it attempted to, because the sun in and of itself was enough to start melting the top layer of snow, but the air temperature wasn't warm enough for it to go anywhere, much less truly evaporate. This meant we had a bunch of shiny snow for a few days there, because there was a thin layer of ice on it. It was kind of interesting at night.
Then, this week, the dew point started rising, and the temperature started rising, and warm air plus cold ground equals one thing: Fog. Tuesday morning was pretty foggy. Then, strangely enough, Tuesday evening around dinnertime it got foggy again. It was about 5:30 and I was doing dishes when I realized, hey, it's kind of hard to see the house across the street behind us. No kidding, it was already that foggy. Mom was confused--and in talking to the mailman at work the next day, he was perplexed as well--because she thought fog only occurred overnight or in the morning. Well, no; fog can occur any time the relative humidity is near or at 100%. That occurs when the air temperature and the dew point are within a few degrees of each other, which clearly they were. That Tuesday evening fog ended up contributing to a terrible car crash out north and west of here where two area high school students died. The fog was so thick where they were that they ended up going through an intersection they hadn't seen, and where they didn't have the right-of-way, and they ended up colliding with a semi. One might think, if the fog was that bad, why were they driving? Well, for one, people don't expect fog at that time of day, and two, when they left their high school, it would've been clear. They were heading to a basketball game over an hour away.
The good news is that, a few days on, there's hardly any snow left, and we haven't had fog since Wednesday morning. It was still kind of scary at times, though, and it's truly amazing how many people were driving around without their headlights on. You doofuses. They're not simply there for you to be able to see; they're there for people to see YOU. In fog that thick, it's so easy to come up on someone you didn't know was there; at least having lights on gives the other drivers half a chance to know you exist. Stop being stupid. Let's not have any more fog-related fatalities.
When we started the week, there was still a fair amount of snow on the ground. It's not as if we got *that* much snow this year. In fact, I realized that at no point during this past winter did my car door hit a snowbank upon opening. That was par for the course last year, and in fact was part of how I realized I was parked correctly (if I was too far over and didn't hit the snow with my door, that blocked my parents from getting in and out of the garage, because with another snowbank on the other side of the driveway, there wasn't any room for them to move over). It's just been so cold that the snow couldn't really melt. I mean, it attempted to, because the sun in and of itself was enough to start melting the top layer of snow, but the air temperature wasn't warm enough for it to go anywhere, much less truly evaporate. This meant we had a bunch of shiny snow for a few days there, because there was a thin layer of ice on it. It was kind of interesting at night.
Then, this week, the dew point started rising, and the temperature started rising, and warm air plus cold ground equals one thing: Fog. Tuesday morning was pretty foggy. Then, strangely enough, Tuesday evening around dinnertime it got foggy again. It was about 5:30 and I was doing dishes when I realized, hey, it's kind of hard to see the house across the street behind us. No kidding, it was already that foggy. Mom was confused--and in talking to the mailman at work the next day, he was perplexed as well--because she thought fog only occurred overnight or in the morning. Well, no; fog can occur any time the relative humidity is near or at 100%. That occurs when the air temperature and the dew point are within a few degrees of each other, which clearly they were. That Tuesday evening fog ended up contributing to a terrible car crash out north and west of here where two area high school students died. The fog was so thick where they were that they ended up going through an intersection they hadn't seen, and where they didn't have the right-of-way, and they ended up colliding with a semi. One might think, if the fog was that bad, why were they driving? Well, for one, people don't expect fog at that time of day, and two, when they left their high school, it would've been clear. They were heading to a basketball game over an hour away.
The good news is that, a few days on, there's hardly any snow left, and we haven't had fog since Wednesday morning. It was still kind of scary at times, though, and it's truly amazing how many people were driving around without their headlights on. You doofuses. They're not simply there for you to be able to see; they're there for people to see YOU. In fog that thick, it's so easy to come up on someone you didn't know was there; at least having lights on gives the other drivers half a chance to know you exist. Stop being stupid. Let's not have any more fog-related fatalities.