A foggy day in H-town

Houstonist is starting to feel like we live in 19th century London: There's a heavy fog over the city this morning, delaying flights and reducing visibility to an eighth of a mile in some spots. [video from KHOU]

Though the fog is starting to dissapate — it reached its peak just before the sun came up at about 6:55 a.m. — it already caused at least two traffic accidents. On the East Loop at Clinton last night, there was a stalled car in the middle of the freeway, which motorists couldn't see; someone slowed down to avoid hitting it and was, in turn, hit by someone else who also couldn't see. A little later, a driver missed a turn on Mesa Drive near Garrett Road and ended up crashing into a tree, KPRC reports. On the Katy Freeway, a high-speed police chase became even more of a concern because of the pea soup — or maybe the fog just gave Channel 2 a nice news hook. The fog also caused the Ship Channel to shut down late last night over concerns about reduced visibility.

Most of the fog is expected to clear up by noon, though patches will remain. (The picture, by the way, is looking toward downtown from the UH campus — but all pictures of fog look kind of the same.)