Fog Disrupts Flights at John Wayne, Hampers Freeways

A dense fog over central Orange County caused hassles Wednesday night for travelers at John Wayne Airport, where 30 flights were canceled or diverted. Traffic was also slowed on local freeways.

With visibility at the airport down to 1,000 feet, officials quickly diverted 15 incoming flights to other airports, John Wayne spokeswoman Kathleen Campini Chambers said. At least 2,400 feet of visibility is needed for a landing, she said, 1,600 feet for a takeoff.

Another 15 departing flights were canceled, Campini Chambers said, and others were delayed.

“We’re fogged in,” she said at 9:45 p.m. “Right now visibility is not adequate enough to allow takeoff or landing.” The airport reopened soon after, when the fog dispersed enough to allow an Alaska Airlines flight to take off and an American Airlines flight to land.

The cancellations and delays followed chaotic days just after Christmas, when dense fog in the Bay Area kept thousands of travelers from departing from John Wayne for San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.

“We’ve been plagued with a couple of weeks of bad weather, either here or places we fly to,” Campini Chambers said.

Most of Wednesday’s diverted flights landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport, where the fog was considerably lighter, Campini Chambers said. Airlines shuttled passengers in buses and minivans to John Wayne, where family members waited for hours to pick them up.

Arvinder Mann was one of those waiting anxiously for their loved ones.

She said her husband’s trip to interview for a job at Purdue University in Indiana had hit bad luck from the beginning. When he arrived at the university, it was closed because of a snowstorm. It was still unclear Wednesday night when he would get home, she said.

John Moser and his wife, Julie, were similarly distressed. They had flown in from Seattle earlier to attend a funeral today. They had been waiting at the airport for hours for another relative to arrive.

“It’s definitely frustrating. We have a funeral in the morning at 10 a.m.,” John Moser said.

Julie Moser added: “Especially when it was beautiful, and we hit this area and suddenly we can’t see anything.”

Meanwhile, on the county’s roads, no weather-related traffic accidents had been reported as of 9:30 p.m., but the California Highway Patrol had issued several travel advisories warning drivers of the conditions.

The fog was concentrated within 3 to 7 miles of the coast, said Brad Doyle, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Diego, which monitors Orange County weather.

The fog was caused by the combination of moist air flowing in from the ocean and elevated temperatures high in the atmosphere, creating a cap that trapped the moist air, Doyle said.

The fog should disperse by late morning, giving way to mostly sunny skies and temperatures ranging from the low 60s to the high 70s, Doyle said.

Come nightfall, Doyle said, the fog could be back.

“We’ll be under the same weather pattern [tonight] as we are [Wednesday] night, so we can expect the fog to re-form and move onshore,” Doyle said.