Fog 101: What you should know before driving this morning

Watch yourself on the roads this morning. The fog is very thick, especially coming into Seattle from the north. There are stretches of I-5 from Northgate across the Ship Canal Bridge where I just didn’t feel comfortable going the speed limit.

Fog is a cloud that forms in contact with the ground, usually it happens as air cools.

And fog makes for extremely dangerous driving conditions.

It is so dense in spots you will not be able to see the car in front of you.

“Driving in the fog is just like driving in the blind. It’s not dark-dark, but it’s dark enough,” explains Rick, a driving instructor who posts his tips on YouTube.

The number one mistake drivers make in these conditions is not slowing down enough. “And make sure you maintain proper safe following distance,” says Rick. “If the car in front of you is stopped, and he’s outside of your range of vision you’ll have a rear-end collision.”

He says you should have your lights on, even in daylight, to give your car the maximum visibility, but stay off the high beams.

“You may think hitting the high beams is going to help you see better, but it’s not,” says Rick. “As soon as the highbeams go up to throw the light farther out, the water vapor that makes up the fog is going to act as little mirrors and is going to throw that light back in your face.”

Now, I can sense your eyes rolling. You know how to drive in fog, is what your thinking.

But here are some stats you might not know about driving in the fog: According to the Weather Channel, fog is responsible for 38,000 car accidents, 600 deaths and more than 15,000 injuries every year.

That makes fog much more dangerous than tornadoes, floods, lightning and even extreme heat.

Most of the accidents are caused by drivers who are familiar with the road but are driving too fast.

Today’s fog should burn off by mid morning as showers move into the area.