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Washington's Foggy Bottom: Yes, It's Worse Than Usual

caption: Metal-sculpted flowers up to 40-feet tall frame the 605-foot Space Needle as it become obscured by fog on Wednesday.
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Metal-sculpted flowers up to 40-feet tall frame the 605-foot Space Needle as it become obscured by fog on Wednesday.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Seattle has been cloaked in a pea soup of fog this month, with fog horns sounding through the night near the Ballard Locks as boats strain to avoid each other.

Meteorologist Johnny Burg of the National Weather Service confirmed that this October has been unusually foggy.

“We’ve had nine days of fog that is so dense it that it’s has reduced visibility to a quarter mile or less,” Burg said. “On average we usually see about 7 days for the whole month of October. So we are about 2 days above the average and we’ve still got more than a week left.”

Burg said the fog results from a high pressure system camped over western Washington. That, combined with dry weather, means there’s nothing to break it up.

Most of the fog is expected to burn off later Thursday.

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