Tule Fog - People Don't Believe Me.

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Scott Whitney
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Tule Fog - People Don't Believe Me.

Post by Scott Whitney » Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:16 pm

The local radio station said be careful driving because it was a foggy morning. I looked out the window and could see almost half a mile. Fog? Not hardly.

In Fresno I got off work at 10 PM and drove from the South end of town to Clovis. On foggy evenings I had to stick my head out the window to see the lines on the street. Many evenings you couldn't see the traffic lights, even though you knew where they were. (roll down the windows, turn off the ignition, listen for the absence of other cars and gun it)

One evening before leaving work we used a tape measure. We could only see 11 feet! Oddly if you looked up, you could see the stars. When I tell people here, they don't believe me.

True story: Shortly before we moved away there was a house fire on a very foggy evening. The house was a short distance back from a busy street. They didn't discover the burned out house until a day later when the fog cleared.

Olivap

Re: Tule Fog - People Don't Believe Me.

Post by Olivap » Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:42 pm

At approximately 5:30 p.m. on a very foggy evening in Fresno in the late 1980’s, I received a call at work telling me to head to Valley Children’s Hospital on Shields (could have been Clinton, not sure) because our daughter had been taken to their ER after a fall. She eventually was fine but I will always remember not being able to find the hospital because the fog was so thick. We had to slow our speed to 15-20 mph in an effort to pick out a street sign through the fog at a time when all we wanted to do was speed up!

Bentley Meredith
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Re: Tule Fog - People Don't Believe Me.

Post by Bentley Meredith » Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:40 pm

I remember going to a party in mid 80's in Del Rey, the fog was so thick we had to open the drivers side door to see the center-line in the road!

Elizabeth

Re: Tule Fog - People Don't Believe Me.

Post by Elizabeth » Sun Jan 03, 2021 9:10 am

I remember trying to drive a babysitter home after a Tule fog had settled down, and how I had to open the driver's door and look for the white line to follow...all of 10-12 blocks, but I was petrified. Another time we had got to a Fresno party before any fog had come down, and leaving the party a few hours later and opening the host's front door...to a wall of fog so dense we couldn't even see our car parked at the curb out front of the house..not more than 20 feet away. Believe it, guys...that fog was the real deal.

ddruxton@yahoo.com

Re: Tule Fog - People Don't Believe Me.

Post by ddruxton@yahoo.com » Sat Jan 16, 2021 12:11 am

My family move to the S.F. Bay Area in the early 1950's but we drove back to Fresno 5-6 times a year to visit all our relatives who remained there. On one of our trips while on the old Pacheco Pass, the tule fog was so bad that we couldn't see the hood ornament (remember those) on our car-no exaggeration. My father had to drive with his car door open to see the white line. It was terrifying! Dad had to stay over in his lane for fear that a driver coming the other direction, having to do the same thing, would crash into us. We were just crawling and the highway was only 2 lanes then & there were steep drop offs on either side of the road.

When Dad got finally got down to the bottom of the hill, he got out of the car shaking uncontrollably walking around smoking for about 15 minutes. I was about 10 years old but even I knew how dangerous that had been. Oh, did I mention it was at night in the dark too. It was not unusual to hear about multiple car pile ups on highway 99 because of it. I lived in Morgan Hill (just south of San Jose) for a while & they used to get tule fog there sometimes. But by that time my car was equipped with fog lights so it was a little easier to navigate in it. Oh, the memories of Fresno...

Clipper cat
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Re: Tule Fog - People Don't Believe Me.

Post by Clipper cat » Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:07 am

While most of the Tule Fog posts are about driving hazards, I actually liked Walking through the fog. It was like visiting a lonelier, quieter planet.

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