TEXARKANA - The National Weather Service has issued a dense fog advisory that will be in effect for Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas through 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Visibilities will be reduced to less than a 1/2 mile at times, according to the NWS.
Parts of Southeast Oklahoma and North Lousiana are also under the advisory.
If you must drive in foggy conditions, the NWS reminds drivers to keep these safety tips in mind:
- Slow down and allow extra time to reach your destination.
- Make your vehicle visible to others both ahead of you and behind you by using your low-beam headlines since this means your taillights will also be on. Use fog lights if you have them.
- Never use your high-beam lights. Using high-beam lights causes glare, making it more difficult for you to see what's ahead of you on the road.
- Leave plenty of distance between you and the vehicle in front of you to account for sudden stops or changes in the traffic pattern.
- To ensure you are staying in the proper lane, follow the lines on the road with your eyes.
- In extremely dense fog where visibility is near zero, the best course of action is to first turn on your hazard lights, then simply pull into a safe location such as a parking lot of a local business and stop.
- If there is no parking lot or driveway to pull into, pull your vehicle off to the side of the road as far as possible. Once you come to a stop, turn off all lights except your hazard flashing lights, set the emergency brake and take your foot off the brake pedal to be sure the tail lights are not illuminated so that other drivers don't mistakenly run into you.
(Information from the National Weather Services' website was used in this article.)