Fog

To most of the world England is famos for rain and fog, since there wasnt a thread for this I thought I'd start one.

So give us your fog stories!

Since I'm starting it, I will.

My Posting to the UK had an in place date sometime in late Jan or early Feb 1987.  We departed from Philadelphia and half way across the pond we were told there was the possiblity we would be deverted maybe even returned to the US as the entire contintent seemed to be below minimum.  Eventually we landed as Shannon and waited for something else to open up. We were finaly able to get into Gatwick around 2pm.  Put on buses we were then transported to RAF Mildenhal to be split up and transported to our various destinations.  Right up unitil we left the motorway, I didnt see much in the UK that was different form the US. This was mainly due to not being able to see more than about 50 ft so it was hard to see that we were even on the "wrong" side of the road. For the most part you couldnt see the other carriageway. Once we got on to spme of the b roads the view outside the window became a movie set. I couldnt believe that what I was looking at was real.  My first week in the UK was limited to only being able to see things that were closer than 50 feet or so.  While I remember enjoying the novelty of it, I had no idea that I had yet to see "real" fog. It's an odd exsistance, living inside a ping-pong ball. But I always looked forward to it, never seemed to loose the novelty. Even when I had to travel in it, I was always very careful driving in it, cant say it it is worse at night or not.  I always wondered if there was some kind of terrain following radar that was sold to the Brits that we couldnt get. Those suicidal drivers that come along blasting a hole in the fog at 70mph in 10-15 foot visability.  Using the force no doubt.

Great new thread John! My Mom tells me that we used to get worse fog when she was young because of all the pollution and factory smoke adding to it - they called those fogs "Pea soupers".

I remember a bad fog over Dartmoor in May 1988. We had gone out for the day over Dartmoor and on our return the person I was with had to walk in front of the car to guide us back - took us two hours!!!

 I also remember a really bad fog in the early 90's. I was out with my friends in Birmingham at Christmas time and I was driving everyone. The fog came down while we were in a nightclub and I had to negotiate my way round to drop everyone off in the car and they all lived the other side of Birmingham to me - you couldn't see at all with the headlights on yet it was the dead of night and you had to leave them on so other cars could see you - very scary!

 You can get some brilliant photos in the fog though! We don't get thm as bad these days though.

The worst thing about fog is the dissorientation. Roads that you know like the back of your hand turn into unknown monsters. Bends aren't where you expect (and know) them to be, junctions seem to move and it's even worse at night!

One good thing nowadays is the introduction of the overhead gantrys on motorways, it makes them much safer than they were before....if there's a queue of traffic ahead you get fair warning.....unlike the good old days when idiot drivers would pass you at 70+ mph driving into oblivion. 

Of all the weather conditions this country throws at us, fog is the one thing I dislike driving in.

Well it was foggy here this morning!

I can't think of any one particular bad fog day/night. I just agree with Andy, it totaly disorientates you. I feel panicky and if the truth be known, I just stay indoors and out of it.

I remember back in the 50s when i was on my way to school. It was August and it snowed. Then the fog came down as well. This was August for Gods sake. I dropped a small penknife that i Used for sharpening my pencil. I spent so much time looking in the snow for it I was late for school.

Also in the 50s, my father worked in Fords,or Briggs Body works as it was then, at Dagenham. On his way home from work in the morning, the fog was so thick he had to walk. The busses were canceled. Because he couldnt see where he was going,he followed the curb. He was 4 hours late and mum was worried sick. He had walked into Romford instead of Dagenham. He had been following the white lines down the centre of the road instead of the curb. Lol