It was a clear, brutally cold night, and the stars above shone in a sort of absolute coldness, absolute brightness. It was Christmas. Here in northern Utah, we all got two big Christmas gifts. On Christmas Eve snow fell, blanketing the valleys and canyons and mountains. Then, the fog set in.
Fog is perhaps the worst weather accouterment to northern Utah.
The fog sets up on long cold winter nights when the humidity is high and snow is on the ground. Out in the country it is plain white thick suffocating fog that obscures everything - houses, taillights, trees, dogs taken on walks. In the city, it mixes with tailpipe emissions and creates a nasty toxic soup. But if there is a beauty in it, it is in the mornings when you walk outside to see a thin coat of rime ice dusting trees, bushes, cars, streetsigns. Sometimes in the afternoons the sun will break through the fog and the rimed-white trees will stand brilliantly against blue sky and mountains.