0800 | Saturday, August 21st, 2022

Out of all the weather conditions that a mariner can encounter, I’d be willing to bet that there’s the unanimous consensus of fog being high on the list.

Caused by relatively warm, moist air flowing over a colder surface, advection fog can seem to appear out of nowhere – unless you’re prepared for it.

This type of fog forms when moist air moves over an already cold surface, and cools from below so that the temperature reaches its dew point. The air then gets saturated and condensation takes place; The air must be stable, else the fog will develop in a stratus/stratocumulus cloud.

For advection fog to disperse, one of the formations factors needs to change – either less moisture in the air, a change of wind direction, or heating of the cool surface.