Talk:Tule fog

Formation details could be expanded

Schoenherr's A Natural History of California has more information about the formation of tule fog. It notes (p. 42) that the tule fog is a temperature inversion layer. It is formed when cold mountain air flows downslope into the valley during the night, pooling in the low areas until it fills the valley to the "brim" formed by the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. This occurs because most areas in the Great Central Valley have little or no air drainage below the level of mountain passes. Because of the density of the cold air in the winter, winds are not able to dislodge the fog and the high pressure of the warmer air above the mountaintops presses down on the cold air trapped in the valley, resulting in a dense, immobile fog that can last for days undisturbed. During the summer, the sun is warmer and better able to burn off the fog.

Besides traffic problems, another big problem associated with the tule fog is that the density of air at the inversion layer traps pollutants below it, leading to poor air quality and the formation of photochemical smog. This is particularly concerning because the source of the pollutants includes not only exhaust gases, but a host of other chemical compounds sprayed as fertilizers and pesticides by the Valley's argicultural industries. This pollution is a major contributor to the large number of "bad air days" and the high incidences of asthma and other respiratory illnesses in Central Valley communities such as Bakersfield. Mike Dillon 16:04, September 4, 2005 (UTC)

The reference info for Schoenherr's book is: A Natural History of California, pp. 42, 518, 522. Allan A. Schoenherr. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 0-520-06922-6 (paperback). Mike Dillon 16:07, September 4, 2005 (UTC)

Tule fog or Tule Fog?

To me, Tule Fog is a proper noun—that is, it is a specific type of fog called the Tule Fog (and not a fog called Tule)—and so it should be fully capitalized. This is the same as, for example, Caspian Sea and not Caspian sea. BlankVerse ∅ 16:27, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

I think it should be "tule fog". I'm partially going off of Schoenherr (who never capitalizes it) and partially off of the Google results for "tule fog" (which are a mix tending toward lowercase). For me, it is more akin to "sedge marsh" than "Capsian Sea": "tule fog" is a fog associated with "tule marshes". I guess I could see it being like "London Fog", though. The word "tule" definitely should not be capitalized on its own, since unlike "Caspian", it isn't a proper name, but the name of a plant. Mike Dillon 19:07, September 4, 2005 (UTC)

Either Tule fog or tule fog. I know a plant isn't a proper noun. And I'm sorry about fixing the spacing. Lately, I've been cutting open spaces here on wiki. Look at the USD article. --fpo 19:31, September 4, 2005 (UTC)

Requested copyright examination

I have put in a request Wikipedia:Requested copyright examinations. I had a question about this image [1]]. The website ([2]) allows any educational use, but "not for any direct or indirect commercial purpose or advantage." To me this reads very similar to the policy at the Smithsonian Institute, and we allow use of their images.

The image itself is from United States National Weather Service Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, but has been modified with some labels. The other choice would be to take one of the unmodified GOES images from the same website and add my own labels.

BTW: The webpage that it is from ([3]—which I've added to the Tule Fog External links) will tell you more than you'd ever want to know about Tule Fog. BlankVerse ∅ 10:28, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

Photo

That photo is a terrible example of tule fog. Visibility in that picture is too good to allow wikipedia users to get a real feel for how thick tule fog can be. I've got better ones taken here in Hanford, CA. Just don't know how to get it to you guys.

Smell?

Just wondering, does the fog smell elsewhere like it does between Sacramento and Stockton?