Update
This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. Jan. 4 with comments from Environment Canada.
St. Albert and Sturgeon County drivers woke up to pea-soup conditions Thursday as much of the region was blanketed in thick fog.
Dense fog patches were reported throughout the Edmonton and Sturgeon County region on the morning of Jan. 4. The fog made the morning drive mysterious and dangerous, with visibility at times limited to a few car-lengths just outside St. Albert.
The fog rolled into Sturgeon County on Jan. 3 and was even thicker the next day, said Morinville RCMP Cst. Jesse Mercier.
“It’s definitely pretty foggy up here,” he said, and his department had received several calls about near-collisions due to it.
“People need to slow down.”
Alberta had warm, snow-free conditions for much of December due to a ridge of high pressure from the west, said Environment Canada meteorologist Justin Shelley. That's now being displaced by a lower-down ridge from the north, resulting in cold, condensation, fog, and potentially a sprinkle of snow this weekend.
Winter fog isn’t uncommon in this region, and was an almost weekly occurrence last winter, Mercier said. He advised drivers to slow down and to turn their headlights on to make sure their cars are visible from behind. (Many cars have daytime running lights, but those do not illuminate the rear lights.) Anyone who has to pull off the road should turn on their four-way emergency lights.
Environment Canada predicted that the fog patches would disperse around noon but return overnight and last into Friday morning.
