Fog Now, Snow Later? Let’s Put an Old Weather Saying to the Test

If you’ve spent the past few mornings wondering where northwest Kansas disappeared to, you’re probably not alone. The fog has been doing a pretty good job of hiding grain elevators, water towers and the other end of the driveway.

All that fog got us thinking about an old weather saying: Fog today means snow about 90 days later.

If that’s how things work, we might want to keep the snow shovel somewhere we can find it.

Before anyone starts canceling January plans, though, this is weather folklore. There is no reliable scientific evidence that a foggy morning means snow will arrive 90 days later. But that doesn’t mean we can’t circle a few dates and have some fun seeing how the saying holds up.

A little fog, a little folklore

Like many sayings passed around kitchen tables and coffee shops, this one comes in several versions. Some people say rain or snow will arrive 90 days after fog. Others count foggy mornings in August to predict how many snowfalls winter will bring.

The trouble is that Mother Nature doesn’t appear to follow that calendar very closely.

Research into the related rain-after-fog saying has found it isn’t a reliable forecasting method. Giving the prediction a generous window makes a match more likely, and it’s easy to remember when the saying works while forgetting the times it doesn’t.

Still, we couldn’t resist doing a little calendar math.

Mark your calendars, just for fun

We found several dense fog advisories covering portions of northwest Kansas from August through late October. Here’s where those dates land when we add exactly 90 days.

These are examples of documented advisories, not a complete list of every foggy morning. We used the date the advisory covered, which sometimes differed from the evening it was issued.

Fog advisory date	Where the advisory applied	Folklore’s snow date
August 6, 2026	Including Wallace, Logan and Gove counties	November 4, 2026
September 27, 2026	Including Rawlins, Decatur, Thomas, Sheridan and Gove counties	December 26, 2026
September 28, 2026	Portions of northwest Kansas	December 27, 2026
September 29, 2026	Widespread northwest Kansas coverage	December 28, 2026
September 30, 2026	Including Rawlins, Decatur, Thomas and Sheridan counties	December 29, 2026
October 22, 2026	Decatur and Norton counties	January 20, 2027
October 27, 2026	Portions of the NWS Goodland forecast area	January 25, 2027
October 28, 2026	Entire NWS Goodland forecast area	January 26, 2027
October 29, 2026	All nine counties in the NWKS Radio listening area	January 27, 2027

If the old saying gets its way, December 26 through 29 could come with a little extra white after Christmas. The late October fog also puts January 25 through 27 on our unofficial watch list.

Of course, those dates are simply the result of adding 90 days. They are not snow forecasts, and our recent stretch of fog doesn’t establish that a snowy winter is ahead.

But it will be fun to see whether the folklore scores a few points. We’ll have to give it credit for the misses, too. A flurry somewhere in Kansas a week later probably shouldn’t earn it a perfect score!

For now, circle the dates, compare notes with the person who first told you the saying, and let’s see whether Mother Nature has been checking the same calendar.

For real weather updates and advisories, tune in to your favorite NWKS Radio station or visit our website, nwksradio.net.