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I have never heard of "freezing fog." Does it freeze in the air and then fall? The rest of the statement before this mention is about ice on the ground. I'm just wondering why it was necessary to mention this separately, thinking maybe it freezes before it becomes ice on the ground. Can anyone tell me?
Freezing fog is ordinary fog (water droplets hanging in the air, in this case supercooled) with surface temperatures below freezing; this means that ice can accrete onto surfaces, though only the heaviest fog events create more than a scattered glaze. Ice fog is fog made up of tiny ice crystals (what those droplets become when they freeze) that have frozen and has somewhat different characteristics versus ordinary fog; water droplets suspended in air don't freeze spontaneously until -40F, and above that they need some provocation to freeze. Ice fog can form when it's as warm as 15F, but in practice fog will turn into ice fog around 0F most of the time. Ice fog can accumulate on surfaces, but accumulates as tiny ice crystals rather than a glaze. When the fog forms directly as ice rather than forming as liquid and then freezing it is called diamond dust, and this also accumulates as tiny ice crystals; in parts of interior Antarctica most of the scant annual precipitation falls as diamond dust.
If you will, think of freezing fog as the fog equivalent to freezing rain, ice fog the equivalent to sleet, and diamond dust the equivalent of snow.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We get freezing fog a few times every year, and the first time I encountered it while driving, I slid and came very close to going in a ditch. Think of it as thin black ice, and drive slower, especially on turns.
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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Freezing frost is very common here from November to February when northwesterlies.
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