Contrast in weather today, Half the area was in the 30s with fog, the other half was sunny with record highs near 50! Also cool photos with story as the fog bank pushed into Rochester.

The last of the snow in our backyard before the fog February 2nd 2012

Quite a contrast in weather today across the region, depending upon where you are, you either had a beautiful day with brilliant sunshine with highs approaching 50 breaking records, or you had fog and low clouds all day with highs in the low to mid 30s. The reason for the differences was a persistent fog bank that spend all day suspended over Northern and Eastern half of the area with the southern extent pretty much reached a line from West Concord to the northern suburbs of Rochester to St Charles. The fog bank remained here most of the day until it pushed south and eventually covered the entire area.

 

View of the fog bank moving in to the north of Downtown

I had an interesting experience with this fog bank today driving into it and back out again. I had an appointment on the far Northern outskirts of the city about 5 miles away, when I left for the appointment it was 50.F with sunny skies, I headed north on 53  and ran into this fog bank and when I got about 4 miles north of Downtown.When I got out of my car after driving about a mile into the fog bank, it felt much cooler and the fog was dense. It felt much like driving near Lake Superior. I had asked people there and they said it had been foggy all day and they were surprised to hear that it was sunny and 50 where I came from. When I drove back from the appointment 5 miles south I drove right back into the sunshine but the temperature had started to drop to the upper 30s, and eventually the fog pushed over Downtown about an hour later.

Fog as it pushed into Downtown.

I went for a walk right around the time the fog was pushing in, it was very interesting to watch the fog first cover the top of the highrises then seem to move "down" them, it made for an eire looking landscape. I later learned that the fog spend the entire day suspended over that are just 4 miles north becuase while it was 47 to 50.F here in Downtown, locations in the northern suburbs 4 miles away has a high of 34.F to 35! I really have no idea what kept the fog in the boundary all day but it seemed to have trouble pushing over the Zumbro river valley until later in the day.

 Highs Thursday

A record high temperature of 48.F was reported at the Rochester Airport. The highest temperature area wide was from inner city areas which had near or at 50.F There was even a big variation in the Rochester Metro, The airport and my station had a high of 47 to 50.F while Oronoco and Buckridge a northern suburb and community had only a high of 34.F to 35.F