Guy Dixon, 05 Jul 2015, 3:46 AM UTC
Thick fog delays flights in Western Australia
Parts of Western Australia woke under a veil of thick fog this morning, at times crippling transport services.
Yesterday, a weak cold front passed to the south of Western Australia, producing a few isolated showers and drawing cool air over southwestern parts of the state. A high pressure ridge has since dominated in the wake of this system allowing conditions to stabilise.
In the early hours of this morning, the temperature dropped to such a point that the moisture in the air condensed to form thick fog. Coupled with calm conditions, a blanket of fog developed and lingered over a wide variety of locations.
Perth Airport was forced to delay inbound and outbound flights due to reduced visibility to less than 40 metres. Narembeen struggled to see further than 100 metres as late as 9am, while Brookton, Donnybrook and Northam were all in a similar situation with visibility as low as 200 metres at 9am.
Locations as far north as Carnarvon also experienced fog, although not quite as severe with visibility reduced to 500 metres.
It seems that it wasn't only the western seaboard which was affected by this phenomenon, with each mainland state and territory with the exception of the NT experiencing fog. An elongated belt of high pressure is spanning much of the nation, leading to generally clear skies and light winds over inland locations.
As we move east around the nation, Nullarbor and Kingscote had visibility reduced to just 150-200 metres, Wangaratta with 300 metres and Lismore limited to just 50 metres. Canberra was a particularly interesting case with thick fog lingering as late as 10am, with low cloud continuing to limit the temperature to just two degrees at midday. Finally, the visibility at Amberley airport dropped to just 250 metres before sunrise.
This belt of high pressure will be disturbed in the coming days by a developing low and front crossing the nation's southeast tomorrow, and a separate front impacting southwestern parts of WA on Tuesday.
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