Location Taken: Valparaiso, Indiana
Time Taken: February 2007
Have you ever encountered a freezing fog?
It requires very specific climatological conditions. It has to be an area prone to fog, in the first place. And it has to be exactly the right temperature range for the fog particles to stay liquid despite being below 32 degrees, which also requires particularly clean water particles. There also can’t be too much water in the air, which would cause freezing rain or hail to form instead.
But, with water in this superchilled state, all it takes is for the fog particle to land on a branch or a leaf or something and it instantly freezes. Here’s a good video explaining this little quirk of physics.
I’ve only encountered freezing fogs twice, both times while at college in Indiana. Neither day was particularly cold, though both were below freezing. The first time, I went to my early morning class before the fog arrived, and when I got out of the building, it was like being transported into a fairytale where all the trees were spun of sugar. It did not last long, the sun burned out the fog and melted the ice within an hour, but it was outright magical while it lasted.
I suppose that’s why I keep thinking of it as Fairy Fog rather than freezing fog. Much more poetic.
The second time, the fog had settled in already by the time I had to leave for class, so I grabbed my camera. It was a heavier fog than the first, but it still had a lot of the same magic to it. Even with the ice crystals being much larger and much more obvious.
At least, unlike ice storms and freezing rains, the fairy fog tends not to damage anything. The fog’s too thin to add too much weight to any one branch, and easily melted by car tires passing over it. Which means rather than worrying about trees falling on your head as you walk under them, you can truly sit back and enjoy the beauty.
I wish these fogs were more common, or at least happened in the area I live in now.
