Freezing fog......

[waterboy]

:eek: I was on my way to work this morning and ran into freezing fog. I've never seen anything like this before. I was driving into Kilgore from the north, and when I got about a half mile into town on Hwy 135, it was a white out. When I first looked I was thinking it was just a heavy frost, but when I started looking around at the trees and vehicles I realized it looked like snow. Everything was white! It completely covered the grass. What's really strange is I drove another half mile and there was nothing, not even a little. I've never seen anything like it. Has anybody else seen freezing fog that looks just like snow?:eek:

[goosealaniz]

Originally posted by waterboy
:eek: I was on my way to work this morning and ran into freezing fog. I've never seen anything like this before. I was driving into Kilgore from the north, and when I got about a half mile into town on Hwy 135, it was a white out. When I first looked I was thinking it was just a heavy frost, but when I started looking around at the trees and vehicles I realized it looked like snow. Everything was white! It completely covered the grass. What's really strange is I drove another half mile and there was nothing, not even a little. I've never seen anything like it. Has anybody else seen freezing fog that looks just like snow?:eek:
sounds cool

[KingRob]

Sounds COLD!

[waterboy]

It just struck me as ODD, because it was only in that half-mile swath. When I saw it I actually called home and my 11-year old daughter answered. I told her about it and she was mad because Kilgore got it and we didn't in Gilmer! Much to my dismay, I got off Hwy 135 onto Hwy 31, went 100 yards or so and there was absolutely no sign of snow or freezing fog. It was just plain weird...........I felt like I was in the twilight zone for a couple of minutes! It's all gone now, though.:(

[icu812]

Originally posted by waterboy
:eek: I was on my way to work this morning and ran into freezing fog. I've never seen anything like this before. I was driving into Kilgore from the north, and when I got about a half mile into town on Hwy 135, it was a white out. When I first looked I was thinking it was just a heavy frost, but when I started looking around at the trees and vehicles I realized it looked like snow. Everything was white! It completely covered the grass. What's really strange is I drove another half mile and there was nothing, not even a little. I've never seen anything like it. Has anybody else seen freezing fog that looks just like snow?:eek:

Saw some this morning between Canton and Mabank, looked like a real heavy frost on everything.

[crzyjournalist03]

By definition, fog is tiny particles of water vapor, so if it's freezing and foggy, everything will become frosty as the water particles freeze on contact with other objects.

[waterboy]

Originally posted by crzyjournalist03
By definition, fog is tiny particles of water vapor, so if it's freezing and foggy, everything will become frosty as the water particles freeze on contact with other objects.
Yeah, but this looked and felt just like snow. I couldn't tell the difference because it actually had to have accumulated to at least 2 inches to cover the grass, trees, and vehicles like it did. I've lived in this area all my life and have never seen that kind of accumulation from freezing fog......snow, yes, fog, no.

[icu812]

The stuff I saw wasn't 2 inches deep. Sounds like what I imagine lake effect snow to be.

[waterboy]

Yeah, like I say, I've never seen it accumulate like that before, either. The radio said it was freezing fog, though. It was just weird that it was only in that one low area and nowhere else.

[Astrosdawg07]

Had it here in Tyler as well.

[txkmom]

Texarkana, too. Drifted down like snow, but just slicked up everything - didn't accumulate and it was 24 here.

[PHS Wildcats]

Palestine as well

[I_DONT_CARE]

DID YOU KNOW THAT 'THE FREEZING FOG' IS ALSO A BAND?

NOT THAT I CARE!

:)

[kaorder1999]

interesting

[lostaussie]

Originally posted by waterboy
:eek: I was on my way to work this morning and ran into freezing fog. I've never seen anything like this before. I was driving into Kilgore from the north, and when I got about a half mile into town on Hwy 135, it was a white out. When I first looked I was thinking it was just a heavy frost, but when I started looking around at the trees and vehicles I realized it looked like snow. Everything was white! It completely covered the grass. What's really strange is I drove another half mile and there was nothing, not even a little. I've never seen anything like it. Has anybody else seen freezing fog that looks just like snow?:eek: It was snow. Snowed for about 3 hours in about a 2 mile strech of highway 31. It was, as Waterboy said, very weird. I would say the heaviest was 2 to 3 inches..............and then there was nothing on either side. Very eeary indeed. I took a few pictures though as i thought for a moment i was in Colorado.

[lostaussie]

Area winter coating is a snow no go



By ADAM J. HOLLAND

Friday, January 30, 2009

It might have looked like snow, but the white stuff falling Thursday morning near Kilgore and Hallsville won't go on the record that way.

A National Weather Service official said watchers might have witnessed an even rarer East Texas weather phenomenon — hoarfrost.






Hoarfrost is the result of rising air and freezing fog. Shreveport meteorologist Patrick Omundson said it's similar to the process that causes rain. Hoarfrost looks like snow, but the two aren't to be confused, he said.

If snow is a rarity in these parts, hoarfrost is the climatological ivory-billed woodpecker.

"I don't recall it happening in my 14 years here," Omundson said from the Shreveport weather service office.

For all the technicalities that prompt officials to record hoarfrost as glaze on the official weather record, Ann Midgley was certain she saw snow when she looked out the window of her Lansing Switch home in western Harrison County around 6 a.m.

"One of the trees looked like it was covered in frosty ice," Midgley said. "I looked at the guard light, and snow was falling. It just coated everything beautifully."

She admitted that the white powder had a different feel than regular snow.

"You couldn't pick it up and throw a snow ball," Midgley said. "It was too dry or something. It was real fine."

Omundson said a similar weather event around 9 a.m. near the intersection of Texas 31 and Texas 135 also fit the hoarfrost definition. His colleague C.S. Ross, a hydrologist, said the Kilgore area weather also could have been freezing fog, which was in the Thursday morning forecast.

"When the air temperature is at or below freezing when fog develops, it becomes frozen fog," Ross said. He added that it can have the appearance of falling snow.

Less than an inch of frozen powder fell in the area and prompted work crews to spread sand for improved vehicle traction.

The low-hanging clouds gave way to a sunny sky, and temperatures rose to the mid-50s by early afternoon, leaving the hoarfrost — or freezing fog — only as an end-of-day entry for the weather archives.

And a few memories, perhaps.

"It was beautiful," Midgley said. "I was waking up people it was so unusual."