COUNTYWIDE : Mostly Sunny Skies Will Replace Fog

A blanket of fog spread over Southern California Tuesday, but meteorologists promised that there would be no repeat this week of the clammy morning shroud that caused brief delays at John Wayne Airport and brought the morning commute to a crawl on most freeways.

“It should be generally fair skies and sun,” said meteorologist Stephanie Hunter, a spokeswoman for Weatherdata Inc., which provides forecasting for The Times. “You should see only small patches of fog.”

Only two departing flights were delayed briefly at John Wayne Airport, and authorities reported no fog-related accidents Tuesday.

The persistent fog bank, unseasonable for this time of year, was formed just after midnight, according to Ditman, as a cold front moved into Northern California. The front brought cold, moist air into the Southland from the Pacific Ocean as gentle onshore winds picked up and blew the fog ashore.

By late Tuesday afternoon, the heavy layer of fog lifted enough to offer overcast skies with only peekaboo sunshine in most areas.

The fog brought a dip in temperatures throughout the county. Anaheim reported the county’s high temperature of 73 degrees, Hunter said. In Santa Ana, temperatures reached only 68 degrees, while in Newport Beach, the thermometers only reached a cool 63, Hunter said.

Visibility in some coastal areas was down to 1/16th of a mile, Ditman said. By late afternoon, visibility was up to half a mile in coastal cities.

Joe Fowler, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman at John Wayne Airport, said that only two commercial flights were held up because of the fog, each for about 10 minutes. “It’s been pretty smooth here,” he said. By 9 a.m., all other scheduled flights had left the airport on time, he said.

California Highway Patrol officer Angel Johnson reported no fog-related accidents, but reported that all freeways experienced slower-than-usual traffic.

Tough driving conditions continued Tuesday at the “Orange Crush,” the interchange of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange freeways, where the closure of a transition road in the rebuilding of the interchange had caused backups Monday.

A truck’s fuel tank sprang a leak, spilling about 35 gallons of diesel at the already-overburdened interchange.

The spill, which occurred about 10 a.m., forced closure of the transition road from the eastbound Garden Grove Boulevard to the northbound Orange Freeway, Johnson said.