Fog a Hang-Up for Airport Travelers : Weather: A gray blanket keeps John Wayne runways empty and phone banks full of business fliers trying to reschedule canceled flights.

Some sprinted through the cavernous airport terminal to the nearest telephone booth to reschedule appointments. Others took a more relaxed approach and perched themselves in the Orange Grill bar to wait for the fog to lift at John Wayne Airport on Wednesday morning.

Whatever the pastime, nearly all early morning travelers to John Wayne had time to kill. A heavy blanket of fog reduced visibility to zero and forced the cancellation or delay of all commercial flights until 9:15 a.m.

“We sat in the plane for about an hour, then were told to wait,” said Greg Paydock, one of dozens of businessmen and women to scramble to the banks of phone booths. “That was frustrating.”

Air travelers shouldn’t suffer the same headaches today, according to weather forecasters. While some patches of fog were expected, visibility should not be affected, said Marty McKewon, a meteorologist for Kansas-based WeatherData, which does forecasting for The Times.

The fog disrupted airport operations for two hours, but that translated into longer delays for many travelers who missed connecting flights, like John McGovern.

McGovern and his wife stared at the flight information screen and wondered what to make of the flashing CANCELED next to their flight to Phoenix. They knew they were not going to make a connection to New York.

“I know it’s an inconvenience, but what can you do?” said McGovern, who has been vacationing in Southern California for nine days. “I haven’t seen fog all week, now this happens. It’s Murphy at work.”

Phil McCarty passed the time slouched in a chair snoring peacefully among a pile of suit bags and briefcases strewn on the chairs. He and partner Pat Diamond were on their way to San Jose.

“You can hang him from a meat hook and he’ll fall asleep,” Diamond said jokingly as he looked at the American Airlines check-in desk, watching for news of when the flight would take off.

Meteorologist McKewon said the fog was caused by a storm front that swept from the Gulf of Alaska into Central California. The system created wet weather in the Pacific Northwest, but only caused a reversal of the wind pattern in Southern California.

That reversal, coupled with clear skies and low temperatures overnight, created the foggy condition along the coast, McKewon said.

The Southern California area should have scattered high clouds for the rest of the week, McKewon said, with a slight chance of rain over the weekend.

Law enforcement authorities said the fog also caused problems for rush-hour motorists on the San Diego Freeway, slowing traffic and causing numerous collisions as drivers tried to get to work in visibility as low as 25 feet.

“I had to drive with my head out the window,” Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Angel Johnson said that most of the traffic accidents were fender-benders. “There wasn’t anything really tragic out there,” she said.

CHP spokesman Officer Lyle Whitten said the accidents caused no injuries, although the fog was particularly dangerous because it covered parts of the freeway in large patches.

“Drivers go into a pocket of fog at freeway speed, then they suddenly slow down,” Whitten said. “That’s when we have multiple rear-end collisions.”