
Kids in this part of California have never experienced the joy of missing school due to snow. Fog, on the other hand, is a different story.
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We don’t get “regular” fog here. We get this dense soup known as Tule (TOO-lee) fog. My understanding is that it is unique to California’s Great Central Valley. It’s fog that forms from the ground up, not the sky down.

The sequence goes like this: it rains, the sun comes out and warms the wet ground just enough for some of the moisture to evaporate, it cools at night (but not too cold or we’ll just get frost), and then you wake up the next morning and you can’t see down the street.
We’re in the ‘burbs on the edge of town, but go just a smidgeon further into the fields and orchards that surround town and you can’t see the lines in the road. I have literally driven with windows down in hopes of hearing cars that I couldn’t see. One would think that people would slow down on the roads when it gets like this. Yes, one would think that. Does slowing from 80 mph to 70 count?
On days like this, schools in more rural areas start announcing their foggy day schedules. Usually this just means the start of school is delayed to allow buses time to pick up kids after the fog has had a chance to burn off with the rising sun. Sometimes that doesn’t happen, and so school is all but cancelled for the day since buses won’t be driven. A handful of kids that live closer to their school may be on campus (that is in “non-COVID” times, of course), but otherwise the day is a loss. The kids generally don’t mind.
I remember when it ‘did’ snow in 1976 in the Santa Clara Valley. We were terrified! We had no idea what it was. When we were informed that it was snow, we wanted to go ski in it. It did not occur to us that we needed a slope for that . . . and skis. There was not enough to prevent us from going to school. It was half an inch deep. For us, it was a historical event.
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The fog, though was mundane, and was not as impressive as yours.
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The snow we got was about the same as yours. One would have to scrape it up from the entire yard to make a 6 inch tall snowman! This fog is horrible to drive in, especially once you get away from the heat of the city. And yet people will still drive like it’s a clear day!😬
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As you likely know, other Californians joke about that fog, and how those who live with it drive in it, as if their experience with it somehow makes them immune to its effects.
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Yeah… until they crash! I guess it’s the same for people who are used to snow. But I see their smashed cars in the news, too. 🤣
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