What is fog Fog is a collection of liquid water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's

surface Fog is essentially a stratus cloud that has touched the earth, so fog is formed in much the same way as a cloud. How it formed When water evaporates from the ocean, rivers and other bodies of water, it evaporates as water vapor. That water vapor is a gas. As it rises up in the air, it can bond to dust particles or any other type of microscopic pollutant. This causes water droplets. When the water droplets group together, you get a cloud or some fog. Mist is also the same as fog, but it is not as thick. What Conditions Need to Be Met to Get Fog? Fog occurs when the humidity is close to 100 percent, but not at 100 percent. Fog also needs the difference between the air temperature and the dew point to be 5 degrees F or less. Under these conditions, when water droplets are on their way up to the clouds, they will bond together close to the earth and form fog. What are the drawbacks of fog Fog is a major hazard and inconvenience to aviation traffic.

Types of Fog

There are four main types of fog:

Radiation Fog As the ground becomes cooled by the night sky the air above the ground also gets cooled. This can bring the air down below its dew point, causing water vapor to condense around the dust and other particulates in the atmosphere, creating fog.

Advection Fog Similarly, advection fog takes place when warm air moves in horizontally over a cool surface, such as when air from the ocean blows in over land. The land cools the air down below the dew point, causing fog to occur.

Upslope fog Upslope fog takes place as warm air passes over the slope of a cool mountain as it rises. The mountain cools the air below the dew point causing it to condense forming fog.

Evaporation fog This form of fog is caused when additional water vapor enters air that is already near the maximum vapor pressure. Because the air is already nearly saturated, the additional water vapor causes the air to reach the dew point, forming fog.