What is Tule Fog

About a month ago I was having dinner with Fran and Jim, when Jim asked me if I had experienced tule fog on my way to Taft yet. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I came home and looked it up. Tule fog (pronounced too-lee) is a very thick fog that collects in parts of California during the rainy season of the late fall and winter. It is a type of radiation fog, caused by the combination of increased humidity due to the rain and rapid cooling due to the longer nights. Tule fog makes for very low visibility and is the cause of many accidents every year.

Tule fog gathers in the Central Valley, from Bakersfield in the south to Chico in the north. Tule fog is created because warm air rises. Visibility in tule fog ranges from a high of 600 feet to under a foot.

Ron called me this afternoon and told me he finally found out what tule fog was. He said it was so foggy at Taft that they closed the exercise yard. That means the visibility was so poor they couldn't even walk the track without bumping into each other. I've been traveling to Taft every week for a year now, and have not yet experienced tule fog. I have a feeling this year will be different. Every week around Tuesday I start to think about what the weather will be like on Friday when I drive the Grapevine. In the past I've just had snow, ice and wind to worry about. Now I can add fog to the list.

Now that I think of it I remember 1963 when I went to Berkeley. I was driving back to school after Christmas break with a friend , the fog on the grapevine was so thick that we got behind a big truck with lots of lights and just followed him. We couldn't see anything. In retrospect it was terribly dangerous, and knowing what I know now, we should have pulled off and waited for the fog to clear.

I'm just hoping to get through the next few months without tule fog inhibiting my visits to Taft. The drive is bad enough without having to worry about mother nature.

Correction on yesterday's blog. Relate, the pop up restaurant in Encinitas, will only be there until February 24, 2011. Also the wine pairings are $20 or $25, depending on what you order. Sorry for the misinformation.