Dense fog climatology for the Blue Ridge foothills and piedmont areas of the Blacksburg, VA county warning area for the period 1973-2008

Details

• Personal Author:
  Jackson, Jan ; Kostura, Kenneth ; Perry, William H.
• Corporate Authors:
  United States, National Weather Service., Eastern Region,
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NWS (National Weather Service) ; ER (Eastern Region)
• Description:
  WFO Blacksburg issues Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs) for five airports. Dense fog with visibilities of a half mile or less producing VLIFR conditions is a frequent forecast problem at individual airports. In addition, dense fog occasionally becomes widespread enough to necessitate a Dense Fog Advisory. Historical dense fog data is available for each of the five airports. The locations of three of the airports, Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Danville, represent a climatological region with similar geographical characteristics on the east side of the Appalachian Mountains. Thirty six years of fog data (1973 through 2008) from these airports were studied to produce a climatology of dense fog events. Although a quarter of a mile or less visibility is the threshold for a dense fog advisory, we found that we needed to use visibilities of a half mile or less in order to get a large enough sample for the study. A dense fog event was then defined as one in which 2 of the 3 airports recorded dense fog of a half mile or less for at least 2 hours during the same period. A period of two hours or longer would have a major impact on aviation and ground travel, and with the similar topography and relative close proximity of the three airports, the dense fog was then probably extensive enough to warrant a dense fog advisory. 176 separate events were identified in the 36 year period.
• Content Notes:
  Jan Jackson, Ken Kostura and William Perry.
  
  "February 2011."
  
  System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  
  Includes bibliographical references (pages 11-12).
  
  
• Keywords:
  Fog Forecasting History Meteorology Weather Forecasting Weather Forecasting
• Series:
  NOAA technical memorandum NWS ER   105
• Document Type:
  Technical Memorandum
• Place as Subject:
  Virginia ; Blacksburg
• Rights Information:
  Public Domain
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:37e70ae128d4e2c7ef66853b1964f28af6df7d9bcda2d41be51db991710f8e78
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/6599/noaa_6599_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.85 MB ]