Misty mystery in shrouded city
Booming noise thought to be ships’ horns as fog envelops landscape
If you were rudely woken yesterday morning you weren’t the only one. Several Auckland residents woken from a serene Sunday sleep-in by booming sounds contacted the Herald inquiring about the mystery noise, heard from the central city to as far afield as the eastern suburb of Stonefields.
One said it sounded like a massive air horn about 6am.
“One long beep then a break then another long beep, just over and over and over.”
Ships are believed to be the culprits by using loud horns in an attempt to navigate their way through the heavy fog.
The Harbour Master’s office confirmed this. “When there’s fog, ships will be using their horns for navigation.”
A Ports of Auckland har- bour control spokeswoman said there was one inbound and one outbound ship yesterday morning, and the ferries would be using fog horns too.
There is also a fog horn on the Harbour Bridge.
“It’s just standard. It’s lawful for them to use horns in fog. It’s for other shipping so they know they’re in the vicinity.”
A heavy blanket of fog sat over Auckland, Waikato, Waitomo and Taumarunui yesterday, delaying international and domestic flights.
MetService meteorologist Sarah Haddon said: “It just takes a while for the sun to come out and heat up the air to burn off the fog. As the wind picks up that will help.”
Fog restrictions were in place at Auckland Airport but lifted at 8.30am.
Seven domestic regional flights were cancelled and 10 were delayed. International flights VA110 from Gold Coast and VA90 from Rarotonga were diverted to Wellington Airport.
On Saturday heavy fog caused 60 domestic regional flights in and out of Auckland Airport to be cancelled and 48 delayed.
Police urged drivers to take extreme care as fog again set in yesterday in the same area where four people died in a crash in the Hauraki District on Saturday night.
WeatherWatch reported that the weekend’s fog was being caused by a strong high crossing the country, but it expected northerly quarter winds developing yesterday should end the foggy conditions for most travellers.
It was a nippy night on Saturday throughout the country, with overnight lows plunging to minus 4C at Lake Tekapo and Mt Cook.
Auckland’s temperature fell to 7C, Wellington’s low was 5C and Christchurch got down to minus 3 degrees.