For those of you who just can’t stand not knowing what Ice Fog is, here’s a quote from the Alaska Science Forum’s Article #1319:
“Ice fog is what happens when water vapor meets bitter cold air that can't hold any more water. When water vapor exits a car tailpipe when it's minus 40, for example, the water vapor temperature drops from about 250 degrees to minus 40 in less than 10 seconds. Water cooled that fast forms tiny ice particles, so small that ten of them could fit side by side on the finger-cutting edge of a piece of paper. Collectively, millions of these particles take form as ice fog, the cotton candy-like clouds that hang over our roads.”
We are having lots of ice fog today - San Francisco doesn’t get this foggy in the summertime! It’s currently -43F and very foggy out. As soon as you get away from any populated areas it gets immediately clear. Weird stuff.
Nature does strange things at these temps. I drove home on square tires this evening - at these low temps the rubber compound in your tires hardens and creates a hard flat spot on your tire that stays, even when you start to move. After a little while the tire warms slightly and the flat spot slowly goes away. Your power steering fluid and transmission fluids also get thick and don’t like to move too well either. Its like driving a manual steering buckboard on an ice road... Fun stuff!!!
Until Next Time...