A characterization of local spatio-temporal variability in daytime occurrence of fog along the Oregon coast using public cameras and airport weather metrics
| Authors: | Sonya Rauschenbach, John B. Kim, Alex Dye, Ian Faloona, R. Cotton Rockwood, Christopher J. Still, Kyaw Tha Paw U, Adele L. Igel |
| Year: | 2026 |
| Type: | Scientific Journal |
| Station: | Pacific Northwest Research Station |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111315 |
| Source: | Agricultural and Forest Meteorology |
Abstract
Fog is a key part of the hydrological cycle in many regions of the world. Coastal fog specifically influences coastal biomes and impacts maritime activities and commerce. Due to complex interactions with landforms, the spatial distributions of coastal fog frequency defy simple characterization. This study is the first to analyze the summertime spatio-temporal heterogeneity of fog along the Oregon coast, a region which depends on coastal fog for shading and as a hydrological input during its warm, dry summers. Direct measures of fog require expensive optical instrumentation that is not broadly deployed. To increase the spatial coverage of in-situ fog records, we used publicly available coastal imagery data sets to detect fog presence at low cost. The coastal imagery consisted of six camera sites located along central and northern Oregon beaches that spanned a 150 km distance. We analyzed the spatio-temporal patterns of this dataset in conjunction with surface weather metrics from the Newport Municipal Airport, which included a visibility sensor for precise fog measurements. We found that the timing of fog occurrence and the overall fog frequency along the coast varied across the locations. Despite this heterogeneity, we found that the average monthly fog frequency at the camera sites had a moderate linear relationship to different metrics of fog and low cloud presence at the airport, suggesting that the airport fog measurements were a reasonable proxy for relative changes in spatially averaged fog frequency. We also found that when there was fog at a camera site, weather conditions at the airport (high relative humidity, low wind speed and lifting condensation level) tended to be supportive of fog formation. However, we found surface weather conditions at the airport were insufficient for real-time fog detection at any particular site along the coast, highlighting the need for more in-situ fog measurements.