The Met Office has issued a 16-hour fog warning for parts of Wales, with forecasters warning of potential travel disruption. The alert covers five areas of eastern Wales—Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Powys and Wrexham—from 6pm on Monday evening until 10am on Tuesday.
Visibility to Drop Below 100m
The Met Office said: "Fog will redevelop across the area this evening, becoming dense at times overnight, with visibility reduced to less than 100m. This will likely lead to some delays to transport and difficult travelling conditions. Fog will thin and clear during Tuesday morning."
With visibility expected to be below 100m in some areas, the agency has advised people to allow extra time for their journeys. The warning follows thick fog that affected large parts of the UK on Monday morning, and this is the second fog warning issued for Wales in as many days.
Perfect Recipe for Fog
Niamh Murray, Met Office operational meteorologist, said current weather conditions are the "perfect recipe" for fog. "With autumn and winter and getting fog during this time of year, we get much longer nights, and that allows temperatures to fall away," she told the Press Association.
"We get a longer period of cooling and also the temperatures are much lower, so they're much closer to the temperature that we need for the air to become saturated and therefore form fog. Another thing that we need to form fog is quite light winds, not absolutely no winds. We just have the perfect recipe at the moment: light winds, clear skies, long nights, to allow that fog to develop. And particularly if we see the negative numbers (temperature in degrees Celsius), it can quite stubborn to clear the next day."
Drivers Urged to Take Extra Care
Motorists have been urged to take extra care in the fog. AA president Edmund King previously said: "Fog can transform a familiar road in a matter of minutes, so drivers need to be prepared to adapt their speed and leave more room between themselves and the vehicle ahead. One of the biggest mistakes is simply following the rear lights of the car in front. It can give you a false sense of security and means you may be travelling too close to react safely if that vehicle suddenly stops. Ultimately, there's no prize for arriving a few minutes early. Give yourself extra time, slow down and drive to what you can actually see ahead."
After the fog clears on Tuesday, the weather will remain cloudy across Wales, with rain in the southern parts through the morning, spreading to most parts later on.
