Ice fog blankets Bend-Redmond area, cancels, delays flights

Murky condition not quite the same thing as freezing fog

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Ice fog settled into the Bend-Redmond area on Sunday afternoon, cloaking the region in its murk and canceling or delaying several flights at Redmond Airport as the homeward-bound phase of the holiday season ramps up.

A late-afternoon check of the Roberts Field flight status page found five delayed and three canceled flights on Sunday and five delayed and at least two canceled departures.

National Weather Service forecasters had predicted patchy freezing fog, but both the Bend and Redmond airports reported ice fog and quarter-mile visibility (though the 3-day history pages referred to it as freezing fog).

According to an Alaska weather blogger, ice fog isn't the same as freezing fog, and is very dense, with visibility often below a quarter-mile. It's tiny particles of ice, usually forming around smoke, exhaust or other particulate matter.

NewsChannel 21's Jacob Larsen said ice fog only forms under specific conditions; the humidity has to be near 100% as the air temperature drops to well below 0 °C (32 °F), allowing ice crystals to form in the air. The ice crystals will then settle onto surfaces.

A check of KTVZ's Webcam page showed higher elevations above the fog and in the clear, compared to the Bend Parkway or the view from Pilot Butte. You can check the latest road conditions at our ODOT TripCheck page.