Persistant Fog Causes Lots of Accidents

UPDATE: Here's a link to our story and one from Kansas.com (featuring Mike Smith of AccuWeather's WeatherData) which says that the freezing fog is also causing slick roadway problems, in addition to reducing visibility - what a terrible combination. We also have a news article up about that situation.

Fog has been a big problem over the weekend... I noticed a couple of our Facebook Fans talking about it yesterday so I'm asking for additional information this morning (see Facebook box at right). So far we're hearing reports of bad fog from New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and also Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Fans in the latter states are reporting freezing fog coating trees white, which is probably hoarfrost -- something I talked about last week. In fact we got a picture of that from yesterday in Plainfield, Illinois:

We're writing a story for AccuWeather.com because the fog will continue to be a problem (especially in the morning and evening) today over a wide portion of the center of the country.

Just a quick Google search turns up the following fog-related accidents:

1. A deadly motorcycle crash in Fresno, California Friday (NWS says visibility was only 600 feet) 2. A fatal plane crash in Michigan Sunday 3. A 19-car pileup in Kansas that killed a child Saturday 4. Another tragic Amish buggy accident in Pennsylvania Saturday 5. A serious crash in York, Ontario Sunday night

Outside the U.S., there were also fog-related accidents reported in the U.K., Pakistan, and in India there was a major train crash due to the fog.

Fog is a localized event and we can't really tie fog in India to that here in the U.S., but we can say that what's responsible for the unusual fog here in the U.S. (and perhaps the U.K.) is this warmer air that so many of us have enjoyed, coupled with widespread snow cover (those two are a recipe for fog).

So while fog is normally a problem in the Spring and Fall, the unusual widespread cold and snow that the U.S. experienced in December and early January, followed by this thaw, have made it a problem this time of year. Below is a map of the snow cover in the U.S. before the "heat wave" hit.