MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX- There were many reports of smoke in various areas throughout county last night, and most if not all of them resulted in firefighters searching an area and never being able to find a fire, but they smelled the smoke too. There were also reports of heavy fog and we posted an NWS fog warning for counties south of here. This got me searching. I had theorized that it was very foggy, and people had been doing their usual controlled burning of trash (always illegal) or lawn debris, and the smell and some smoke were mixing with the fog.

Of course, with no real meteorological knowledge, (unless you count all the time I’ve spent watching the Weather Channel or on the NWS site during approaching storms and hurricanes), the theory of smoky fog wasn’t something I wanted to throw out there when everyone was already arguing over smoke vs. fog.

Turns out, not only can they mix, apparently, they can form a “super fog” that’s very dangerous for drivers.

Here’s an AP article from October explaining how smoke and fog combined in Louisiana last October, reduced visibility, and caused a 158-vehicle pileup and at least 7 deaths:

What is super fog? What to know after deadly Louisiana pileup | AP News

Here’s another article from Florida regarding origins of “super fog” and incidents in that state that caused pileups:

Super fog: Why does it happen and why is it so dangerous for motorists (news-journalonline.com)

I’m not saying that’s what happened around here last night, but maybe it was a mild version of it. I haven’t checked to see if there were any prescribed burns yesterday, but there are always plenty of private citizens around MoCo who LOVE to burn whatever they can, whenever they can. It’s possible some areas were having the terrible mixture of smoke and fog and that’s what made the fog denser and smell like smoke.

In other words, in my opinion, people on BOTH sides of the argument were probably right. It’s the only conclusion that makes sense, with some people so positive it was only thick smoke, and some insisting it was simply heavy fog.

In the end, the truth of what was happening last night is far less important than reminding people to drive slowly or avoid going anywhere when visibility is very low.