RoundUp: Baby, it's cold (and foggy) outside
The endless fog, the Sebastopol Christmas Light Parade, holiday decorations in the plaza, and tomorrow is the deadline for our personal essay contest
What’s up with the fog?
From NASA: “An Unrelenting Tule Fog”
An atmospheric phenomenon occurring over much of California was unmistakable in satellite imagery in late autumn 2025. Fog stretching some 400 miles (640 kilometers) across the state’s Central Valley appeared day after day for more than two weeks in late November and early December. Known as tule (TOO-lee) fog, named after a sedge that grows in the area’s marshes, these low clouds tend to form in the valley in colder months when winds are light and soils are moist.
This animation shows a sprawling blanket of white fog filling most or all of the valley from Redding to Bakersfield between November 24 and December 9, 2025.
The tule fog is also responsible for the cold. Daniel Swain on his Weather West blog says that areas not experiencing tule fog are warmer than usual.
The overall stable pattern allowing this fog layer to persist, however, has actually brought an anomalously warm and dry airmass to the broader West and even most of California outside the fog layer. In fact, there has been a remarkable contrast between well below average temperatures under the fog layer in the Valley and well above average temperatures just a couple thousand feet higher in elevation in the nearby hills and mountains.
In Northern California, Sacramento is cold and Lake Tahoe is warm. So Sebastopol would feel warm but for the tule fog hanging around most of the day; and the fog has stayed around for too many weeks. Unrelenting it is. On Saturday morning, at the Sebastopol Public Library weather station, the temperature was 41 degrees with an overnight low of 39.
My sister who lives back east texted me that it was zero degrees and snowing where she lives; she doesn’t believe it really is all that cold in California.
The Sebastopol Christmas Light Parade rides again this week
Sebastopol Christmas Light Parade organizer Lori Jay is hoping to see lots of smiling faces and waves along the Sebastopol Lights Parade route this year. Started during COVID to cheer folks up, the Sebastopol Christmas Light Parade will ride again this week on Thursday, Dec. 18. It will start at 6:30 pm on Belle View Avenue in Sebastopol with Santa in the lead.
This informal holiday celebration consists of a long line of lighted and decorated cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles. You are welcome to decorate your vehicle and join in. Just show up with bells on (literally or metaphorically) on Belle View Avenue before 6:30 pm.
Though it is not listed on the route map, Jay said, “We will be going through Fircrest Mobile Home Park before ending at Fircrest Market.”
Holiday decorations in the plaza
Have you made it down to the downtown plaza to see the Christmas lights the city put up this year? It’s worth a visit.
Tomorrow is the deadline for the Sebastopol Times Personal Essay Contest
There is still time to send in your essay for the Sebastopol Times Personal Essay Contest. The deadline is tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 15, at 5 pm. Send your essay to the sebastopoltimes@gmail.com. Find all details here.
Sebastopol Police Logs, Dec. 1-7
The following are crimes excerpted from Sebastopol Police Department daily crime log entries and listed at the time the alleged violation was reported.
MONDAY
2:43 p.m. Grand theft (felony) at South Main Street. Pending further investigation.
9:11 p.m. Possession of a controlled substance and violation of probation (misdemeanors) at Morris Street and Laguna Park Way. Suspect arrested.
WEDNESDAY
8:18 a.m. Getting credit using another’s identification, identity theft and forgery (felonies) at Laguna Park Way. Investigation suspended, leads exhausted.
THURSDAY
11;19 p.m. Failure to appear in court after making a written promise (misdemeanor) at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
FRIDAY
1:35 p.m. Impersonating another person to get more than $400 in value and identity theft (felony) at Bodega Avenue. Investigation suspended, leads exhausted.
4:58 p.m. Shoplifting (misdemeanor) at Gravenstein Highway South. Pending further investigation.
SATURDAY
9:43 a.m. Resisting a public officer, assault and battery on a person (misdemeanors) at Gravenstein Highway North. Suspect arrested.
11:18 p.m. Driving while under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content level of at least 0.08% (misdemeanors) at Sebastopol Avenue and Morris Street. Suspect arrested.
SUNDAY
7:45 p.m. Making a false report of a crime to peace officers (misdemeanor) at Bately Court. Referred to District Attorney for review.
10:56 p.m. Served a misdemeanor arrest warrant at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
OTHER POLICE ACTION
The Sebastopol Police Department also recorded 162 events requiring police action during the period, such as lost animals, assisting citizens, parking violations, foot patrol, traffic hazards and reckless driving.
Many of your readers may be familiar with tule fog from driving to the Sierra for a day’s skiing and having to inch across the Central Valley in zero-zero conditions. Or from the chain reaction vehicle pileups on I5 that were often in the news. What’s interesting this year is not just the prolonged duration as storms that would normally mix up the atmosphere have tracked north of us but how high above ground level the base of the thin fog layer has often been, allowing for better visibility at road level. At least according to web cams and anecdotal reports (I haven’t checked aviation weather records). The NWS article mentions that the tule fog is good for the Valley’s fruit trees, leading to better crop yields. I’m curious if West County farmers are familiar with this effect. Since we get coastal fog too, tule fog may not be as big a factor here.