*@#$!^&*! Tule Fog!

[wolfsong]

I HATE THIS FLIPPING TULE FOG!

Zero visibility turns a normal 40 minute drive home from work into an hour and a half trip of terror. The few miles that I travel on the freeway is bad enough, but it's the 30some miles of two lane country roads that increase the pucker factor. Driving with your head hanging out Te of the driverside window while trying to see the center line is not fun. But when you're on roads with NO center line it gets REAL interesting.

It's easy to get disoriented when you have no sense of direction while moving. The last mile or so is the worst, as the lane to my house has wide aprons on either side for parking farming equipment and the aprons are level with the roadway. More than once I've found myself seeing and stopping just short of scrapers and disks and mowers parked on the side. Where the hell is the road?!?!!!

Zero visibility is not an exaggeration. Fog lights do no good. I guess my familiarity with the roads home help me, as I use my odometer to guide me, knowing the distance between each turn, each bridge etc. It still ain't no fun.

I know we all have weather issues to deal with wherever we live. I just had to rant (not that the weather listens or cares) and get it off my chest. But, of all the weather conditions that I've lived and driven in, this infernal tule fog I hate the most. Oh, well, that's the price of living in the country. At least the ducks and the geese enjoy the surrounding wetlands. So does the tule fog. Wish me luck on tomorrow night's drive home.

 

[Colonialgirl]

I remember those California Fogs and the IDIOTS that tried to drive through them at 60 MPH with their lights on HIGH beam. I think that's what California's state government operates in ALL the time isn't it??

Drive careful there Wolfie !!

 

[blume357]

You'd think the government could do something about it.

 

[737tdi]

Wolfie: Come on man, it isn't hard, hang your head out the window and you can see the stripes in the road. Remember, I lived there for 6 years. Dealt with that fog for that long. I'm sorry you have to deal with it for so long. I kind of miss it. It was awesome to a 20 year old kid. I had never seen anything like it.

Karl

 

[volshooter]

We get heavy fog a lot. It is so heavy sometimes I cannot even be sure where I am. I am sure glad we don't have it as bad as you. Keep safe.

 

[AjayTaylor]

I can absolutely relate. I had a 90 mile trip home once like that in Oregon, and I was unfamiliar with the roads. Just the other night, we called and ordered a pizza. It's only a four mile drive round trip. I walk out to the car, and it is snowing so hard, I literally had trouble getting out of the driveway. I live two miles from Lake Erie, so I know about hard lake-effect snow, but I never in my life saw it snow like this. I was terrified. A four mile round trip on roads that I drive every day took forty minutes. Pucker factor is correct!

 

[graygun]

Would a FLIR set-up help?

 

[m657]

I've seen fogs like that, and when there isn't even ANY lines to help compounds the problem.

It ain't always what YOU do as a driver....it's them other idjits that add to the terror. When 'walking speed' is too fast there's still those trying to cruise at 60mph.

Because of the crush of possible traffic issues, sometimes 'Fog Day Off' is reasonable.

 

[FastEd]

There is a stretch of I-10 through the Florida Panhandle into Alabama along the Gulf Coast that is constantly socked in at night. I can remember going through there about two o'clock at night when the fog was really heavy. An eighteen wheeler passed me and his back end was well lit with red tail lights. I sped up and followed those lights for many miles. He was doing at least 60 mph and I tried to lay back as far as I could and still see him. It was sort of a white knuckle trip.

 

[sfhogman]

Been there, literally. The winter fog in California's Central Valley has to be experienced to be believed. San Francisco's summer fogs are nothing in comparison.

Stay as safe as you can, Wolfie. That is some scary stuff.

Jeff

 

[nekvermont]

I've only had to drive in fog like that once in my life, late at night, back in the early 70's. It's something I will never forget. Had to hold the door open to watch the yellow line and had no idea where I was.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Self driving cars might be an answer. :wink:

 

[wolfsong]

Self driving cars might be an answer. :wink:

Ship one out to me. Be sure it's electric, too. :roll:

 

[coach]

I have to ask, what is Tule fog? Fog isn't much of a concern usually where I am. The only names we have for it are maybe light or heavy.
Never mind, I just wikipedia'd it. The eastern shore of md is prone to heavy fogs in the mornings, but it tends to burn off when the sun comes up. I don't drive there a lot.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Wolfie, I've got nothing good to say about tule fog, whether trying to drive in it, or even fly when it affects air traffic. Some day maybe I'll tell the story of an eight hour flight from LAX-SAC (normally about 55 minutes or so) with beach fog at this end, tule fog at the other. I lived at or within a stone's throw of the beach for the first half of my life, and it's hard to remember any fogs we had there which even came close to that stuff.

Stay safe, my friend, and if you feel an unseen hand on your shoulder, just know a prayer was heard!

Rick C

 

[graygun]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

We get some heavy fog here as well. Concerns me a lot it's so thick at times, I'm not even sure where the next stop sign is. I certainly avoid freeways when it's like that, crashes are MULTIPLE CAR accidents when it happens. Hoping spring get's here soon. Doesn't seem to be as bad then.

 

[toysoldier]

I learned to drive in Jefferson County MO, which is the northeast tip of the Ozark plateau. I believe the fog there was just as thick, although perhaps not as frequent. Sometimes it would form at a particular altitude, and driving uphill and down, I'd enter and exit the fog bank.

 

[BearBio]

I lived in SoCal for 50 years. My dad's aunt lived in Fresno. I was the regional biologist for Tulare County for 5 years.

Remember driving to Castle AFB with my girlfriend to visit her brother. We went from the bottom of the Grapevine to Merced with her hanging out the window guiding me along the fog line. Had a friend killed by a semi outside of Bakersfield and they didn't find him for 3 days due to the fog.

Worse than the people doing 60 (like Greyhound) are the people doing 15 in the fast lane on I-5 or Hwy 99.

Tule fog for those of you not from the Central Valley is a dense fog that sets in and can last for days or even a week. Headlights are pointless. Sometimes you cannot see as far as the end of the hood. A car's tailights may become visible at 5 feet!
It's caused by moisture coming off the open fields and condensing in the cool air. Couple with no wind and an inversion layer.............

 

[volshooter]

Self driving car sounds interesting. Unless it relies on the government in any way to navigate. Or the GPS system. I have been on subways and trains in them big cities, they seem to work.
On second thought, here in east TN I don't think those self drivers would work. Round here you are lucky to not hit a curve within 300 yards. The road I live on doesn't even have a stripe in the middle nor any edge.
I reckon "self driving cars" around here actually means you got a designated driver... :shock: :shock: mucho pucker factor if it is my wife at the wheel! She is the most kind, sweet, understanding and gentile woman. Put that female of the species behind a few thousand pounds of metal and some horse power and she turns into a MMA fighter. My mother is the same way behind the wheel.

 

[737tdi]

I posted earlier but have to say I have never seen fog like the Tule fog. It is dense and is all the way to the ground. I lived in Hanford CA for 6 years and can remember driving to NAS Lemoore with my head out the window trying to see the stripes on the road. You had to know where you were going (I.e. the next stop sign, the next turn etc.) I do know what you are dealing with Wolfie, it is horrible.

Karl

 

[RugerHound]

coach - Tule fog is phenomenon unique to the San Joaquin & Sacramento Valley areas of California's Central Valley. It can appear anytime in the fall/winter/spring. (Tule fog LOVES long nights...)

It's like driving in a white out... Absolutely zero visibility in many cases. Absolutely miserable to drive in. Very dangerous... I've gotten lost in oil fields in Bakersfield in that stuff... End up thinking I'm going to one lease and end up at an entirely different lease.

Lots of serious wrecks in that stuff to. It can go for miles and miles...

ETA: Pronounced Too'-lee

 

[redhawker]

Of all the weather conditions to drive in IMHO fog is the worst. When its as bad as wolfsong described I park it and take a nap. The thing that scares me is other drivers. If I was the only one out there I'd keep going as I'm pretty sure by going slow enough and being careful I could make it but you've got idiots out there that say "the sign say 60 MPH" even though they can't see 5 yards. Fortunately, in my neck-o-the-woods we rarely get the real thick fog.

 

[m657]

'Ship one out to me. Be sure it's electric, too."

....What you NEED for them conditions, is one that RUNS on fog....and has some kinda locater device that keeps ya from falling off the pavement or crushing nocturnal cyclists.....

 

[mohavesam]

Interesting reading all the accounts of how people try to drive in near-zero visibility.
In our school district we lost two second-graders waiting for the school bus in morning fog, when a woman plowed them over on her way to work. She just HAD to get there, y'know. Zero-visibility weather wasn't going to slow her down. She "knew" how to drive after all.

 

[wolfsong]

Yes, people "have to get there". Sometimes there aren't any options.

 

[ProfessorWes]

I remember some of those pea-souper California fogs from the time I spent stationed in Monterey during my Army hitch. Luckily I never had to drive in one. Walking in them was bad enough.

 

[Jeepnik]

Yep, it's that time of year. Went out to the Taft area last week. Sometimes I wish I had my old USAF issue fog knife.

 

[DA_TriggR4Ruger]

Pea soup fog

 

[Mike Armstrong]

I've lived all over the US and in all regions and there simply isn't anything like tule fog, except a bucket of white paint, cold, clammy white paint. Sometimes it is so thick and shallow that you can get out of the car (and AWAY from the road!!!) and see perfectly OVER it. But of course that does you no good for driving. BTW, if you pull over and stay in the car to try to figure out what to do next (Good Luck on that!), keep your seat belt on.