Blue, then Gray

My walk on Roads End Beach started with blue skies

Fog is essentially a cloud at ground level, made up of condensed water droplets that form when air is cooled to the point (dewpoint) that it can no longer hold the water it contains. Unlike other types of clouds that are more often the result of quickly rising air, fog generally forms near the ground and can be caused by a number of processes. In the coastal areas I’ve frequented during my COASST travels, this summer fog is commonly the result of warm moist air masses blowing over the cold surface of the Pacific Ocean. The warm air then cools, and the dewpoint is reached, blanketing the landscape with a dense opaque screen. Warm air masses can come from both onshore and offshore directions, many times rolling in quite rapidly. I actually don’t mind the fog at all, and was quite impressed as I watched it roll in all of a sudden this morning. One minute a clear, blue sky, the next a thicket of undulating gray. No wonder so many COASSTers has stressed the importance of being aware of the water and weather at all times while out on the beach. Within the blink of an eye, the entire landscape may have changed before you. 

Within twenty minutes of the first picture, a heavy fog had set in