MACON, Ga. — On Monday morning, a rare weather phenomenon caused a large wreck on I-55 in Louisiana.
Around 160 cars, trucks and tractor-trailers collided with one another and caused at least seven deaths and dozens more injuries in the crash.
The wreck was caused by a thick layer of fog that limited the visibility of drivers until the wreck ahead was right in front of them.
However, this wasn't just a regular foggy morning. It was a very uncommon weather event known as "super fog".
What is "super fog"?
A couple of ingredients came together to create what we refer to as super fog.
Your typical foggy skies are a result of low-lying moisture in the atmosphere or — in other words — a cloud that is on the ground.
Super fog is exactly that but with an added factor: smoke from wildfires of damp vegetation. In this specific case, foggy skies formed over the warm water in Lake Pontchartrain as a moist air mass came in contact with cooler temperatures overnight.
To the east, wildfires have been raging in nearby marshy areas due to a lack of rain in recent weeks, which has led to the United States Drought Monitor placing the marshes in an exceptional drought.
These wildfires created smoky and hazy skies all around them.
The last ingredient that was needed to create super fog conditions was the mixing of this smoke and fog.
Due to a recent shift in winds in the southeast United States, gusts began to blow from east to west, and this pushed that wildfire smoke over the foggy air in Lake Pontchartrain and continued to trek westward over I-55.
The super fog resulted in visibility being below 10 feet in front of you on the interstate. Then, when one car crashed, it turned into one giant pile-up because motorists could not see the wreck ahead of them until it was too late.
Tips for Driving in the Fog
The best advice for driving in fog is simply not to. However, we don't live in a perfect world, so here are a few tips that are helpful for driving in limited visibility.
- Allow for more space between you and the car in front of you
- Use your low-beam headlights, not your bright beams
- Turn on your defroster
- Use a GPS app (i.e. Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, etc.) to see how far away you are from a traffic slowdown or stop that may not be visible in the fog
Can we get "super fog" here in Central Georgia?
With weather, there is always the possibility that anything could happen.
We've seen blizzards and hurricanes here in Central Georgia over the years.
However, since there are no large bodies of water located in Central Georgia, such as Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, we are less susceptible to widespread fog. Also, a super fog would only occur if we had smoke from wildfires in our sky.
Hazy skies like those we saw a few months ago from the Canadian wildfires combined with fog would cause limited visibility, but not on the scale that they had in Louisiana due to the fires and fog being so close to one another.
What's next for Louisiana?
Louisiana police say this portion of I-55, located in Manchac, Louisiana on the western edge of Lake Pontchartrain, will remain closed as they continue to remove the vehicles involved.
They have also stated that more victims could possibly be uncovered during this process.