By Josefine Ganko
Thick fog blanketed Sydney on Monday morning, marking a gloomy start to the week after a weekend of sunny weather.
All ferries on the Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River were cancelled due to the heavy fog, but services resumed around 9am as the clouds started to lift.
The Sydney Opera House surrounded by fog.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Credit: Kate Geraghty
“The extensive fog formed overnight, first west of Sydney, but in the last few hours of the night and into the morning, we saw some of that slide down the river towards the east,” said the Bureau of Meteorology’s Angus Hines.
The heaviest of the fog had cleared by about 10am. The forecast for the rest of the day is for peeks of sunshine, with a top temperature of 19 degrees.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a road weather alert for all of Sydney early on Monday morning, warning that reduced visibility would make driving conditions dangerous, advising motorists to take extreme care. The warning was lifted at 8.36am.
Fog hangs over Rozelle Bay, Annandale.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Webcam footage shows heavy fog moving across the CBD.Credit: Nine
Webcams set on the harbour showed only the tops of the tallest buildings in the CBD above the thick cloud cover.
Hines said radiation fog is typical in autumn and winter.
“It’s caused by a combo of cool temperature overnight, with single digits cool enough, then enough moisture in the atmosphere to turn into fog,” Hines said.
What is radiation fog?
- Radiation fog, the most common type of fog, occurs when cool temperatures, high humidity and low winds combine.
- According to the Bureau of Meteorology, it most commonly forms overnight when the air cools as the ground loses the heat it absorbed during the day.
- The greatest rate of radiation occurs when skies are clear, humidity is high and winds are very light, which happens when a high pressure system is controlling the weather.
“The high-pressure system off the east coast is doing that, bringing not a big blast, but enough humidity for the fog to form.”
Hines added that calm winds were essential for this kind of fog to form, with Sydney and much of NSW’s east coast ticking off all three ingredients for fog to set in.
Rowers in Rozelle Bay braving the fog early on Monday morning.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Sydney is currently sitting at 89 per cent humidity, with very little wind, creating the perfect conditions for the heavy fog.
While there was not much to see on Monday morning, Sydney put on a show on Sunday evening, when a spectacular meteor soared across the city just after 6pm.
Those who happened to have their eyes on the sky were treated to the stunning view, as the mass of rock burned up inside the Earth’s atmosphere.
Travelling roughly from east to west, the meteor had a distinct green colour and a long tail, lighting up the sky for nearly ten seconds.
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