On Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 1:37:34 PM UTC, Norman Lynagh wrote:
Graham Easterling wrote:

Penzance does not get much real fog.

Radiation fog is rare as its on a SE facing sloped by the sea. The nearest
area prone to it is around Marazion marsh.

The cloud base in typical W-SW warm sector conditions is above sea level
(though often only by 50 - 100') due to the 300' high rise behind E facing
Newlyn. Often the castle on St. Micheal's Mount just catches the cloud.

Banks of sea fog during warm, humid anticylonic weather rarely drift over
Penzance. Even in an E-SE wind it is protected by the Lizard, so gets less
fog than say Torbay which faces in a similar direction. In any case, banks of
sea fog can occur at any time, and are more common in Mount's Bay in the
afternoon rather than at 09:00.

As a result, the days with fog at 09:00 are low. E.g.
2013 - 9 days
2014 - 2 days
2015 - 6 days
2016 - 2 days (Bank of sea fog in June - warm sector fog in November.)

All this is leading up to the fact that I've just recorded 2 consecutive days
with fog @ 09:00. Last time this happened was in 2013.

The amount of fog on the coast varies vastly from 1 spot to another. If you
want to sit in fog in west Cornwall - go to Pendeen. They can have virtually
a complete week of the stuff in a winter warm sector. This is something to
bear in mind when forecasts say 'coastal fog patches' The distribution
certainly is not random, it's very predictable from mile to mile.

Graham
Penzance

My distant memory of a holiday at Towan Cross in Aug 1951 is of many days of
fog. Also, that was in the bad old days when the beaches were heavily polluted
with oil, though it seemed more like tar.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
http://peakdistrictweather.org
@TideswellWeathr

Those were the days when the tankers going to & from Milford Haven used to openly wash out their tanks off the north coast of Cornwall. It prbably peaked in the early '60s.

If there was one good outcome of the Torrey Canyon disaster (which was certainly a disaster for Sennen) it was the pressure to prevent oil pollution, helped by the fact that Harold Wilson holidayed on Scilly - so laws were passed and the result was a complete transformation in just a few years. Nice to have a good environmental story (eventually).

Go 2min 40 secs into this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM3LxUUm4X8 it shows the state of Sennen beach, it had to be seen to be believed. Much of the sand became fluid and was washed off the beach. What the video doesn't show is the stench. I lived at the top of the cliff, and it was still dreadful. It was sprayed with detergent which had a devastating environmental impact. After the oil & detergent came the dead wildlife. It's what mainly prompted me to get involved with Greenpeace.

Graham
Penzance