In article ,
Peter Clarke writes:

"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
...
A decade or so ago I would have looked at the forthcoming charts showing
high pressure on the near continent with a slack southerly flow and almost
guaranteed widespread fogs. However, so far the forecasts have hardly
mentioned fog(s). Is this to do with the "cleaner" air we now live with,
compared to the soot producing smogs of yester-year. Wew hardly get an hour
or two of fog in a year now, here at Southend-on-Sea, yet I can remember
days with it, and some days it never cleared at all through the day.

What has changed?

I'm sure the main reason is that, 40 years and more ago, the main source of
heating houses and factories was coal. In the autumn and winter the first
job of the day in most households was to light the coal fire. On calm, clear
mornings the smoke from all these fires soon led to smoke haze, and if
conditions were at all misty, the smoke readily mixed with it to produce
fog.
In my young days, already a weather enthusiast, I used to look forward to
seeing the first fogs of autumn and seeing how long they took to clear. The
earliest date in autumn I noted an all day radiation fog was 30 October
1949, but in most years I expected at least one fog to last all day before
the end of November. If the fog was really thick there was always the hope
that school would close early in the afternoon !
I was thinking yesterday that although the air was dry with only a light
breeze, 50 years ago there would have been a noticeable smelly smoke haze
which would have been even thicker today.

I've recently read a couple of books written in the 1950s: "A Century of
London Weather" and CEP Brooks' "The English Climate". It's noticeable
how much space they devote to discussing fog, which then was a major
problem (and in urban areas a health hazard) in a way that it no longer
is.
--
John Hall

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."
Oscar Wilde