City emerges from bed to find the sky blanketed

FOR the second time in a week, parts of Sydney were blanketed by a thick early-morning fog yesterday, causing havoc at the city's airport, the cancellation of ferries and heavy peak-hour congestion on the roads. Graphic: Pea soup

FOR the second time in a week, parts of Sydney were blanketed by a thick early-morning fog yesterday, causing havoc at the city's airport, the cancellation of ferries and heavy peak-hour congestion on the roads. Graphic: Pea soup

The city's skyline, as well as its most famous landmark, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, were shrouded from view for about three hours as the fog hovered spectacularly across the CBD and low-lying suburbs.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, it is not unusual for Sydney to have heavy fogs at this time of year.

"Because we're having cooler nights and there's still a reasonable amount of humidity, that's why we're getting these types of fogs in May," a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Meteorology Julie Evans said.

"The ground cools off and, in turn, the air becomes cooler and that creates the fog."

Such heavy cloud-like masses - known as radiation fogs - are rarely seen during winter in Sydney because the air is drier and the colder temperatures result in frosts rather than fogs.

In summer, warmer temperatures don't allow fogs to form.

"The city averages about two heavy fogs each year and invariably they occur in May," Ms Evans said.

Sydney was also blanketed by a heavy fog on Monday morning.

Sydney Tower operations supervisor Amit Barkay, who has worked at the CBD landmark for two years, said yesterday's fog was the thickest he had seen.

"It was really surreal. I am used to looking down on all the skyscrapers but it was like a completely different skyline," Mr Barkay said.

"There were a couple of buildings just peeping through, and the top of one crane, but apart from that it was like looking down on a giant blanket."

But it wasn't such a serene experience for thousands of airline passengers.

Travellers endured delays until yesterday afternoon, after 25 international flights were unable to land because of the heavy fog.

Arrival times of some international flights were delayed by up to six hours.

At least four international departures were cancelled due to the weather. Dozens of domestic flights were delayed.

There was also chaos on Sydney's roads with the fog and a number of car accidents leading to long traffic snarls throughout the morning.

Ferry services between Manly and Circular Quay were cancelled because of the dangerous conditions, with visibility on some parts of the harbour reduced to 50m.

Sydney Ferries spokesman Scott Keenan said 20 buses replaced services between Manly and Circular Quay. But talkback radio was swamped with calls from commuters, complaining that there were queues of up to 1000 people waiting for the replacement bus services.

The fog was restricted to low-lying areas, having drifted in from the eastern suburbs.