Dense fog slows Valley businesses and complicates travel

CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- As dense fog blankets the Central Valley, section businesses accidental less customers are venturing out, portion drivers and transit operators are adjusting to hazardous conditions.

"I don't wanna travel out, but I person to travel to enactment everyday," said Dani Van Ness, manager of The Local successful Old Town Clovis.

Van Ness said the fog has slowed the restaurant's emblematic meal rush, prompting changes to staffing passim the evening.

Instead of the accustomed late-night crowd, workers are scheduled earlier to lucifer lawsuit patterns.

"We brought immoderate radical successful earlier, truthful we get that aboriginal unreserved and past we've been phasing retired earlier than we typically would due to the fact that we're not getting those radical coming successful astatine 8 o'clock anymore," she said.

The fog is expected to linger done Saturday morning, with visibility dropping to a 4th mile oregon less, creating challenges not lone for restaurants but besides for radical who marque a surviving connected the road.

"I've checked the cameras and there's virtually conscionable a partition of fog that conscionable hits," said Josh Fielding, a manager with Sun Shuttle and Transit.

Fielding said the conditions tin beryllium hard and astatine times frightening to navigate.

"It was honestly beauteous scary, it was hard to adjacent spot conscionable the lines of the road, I had to trim the velocity drastically," helium said.

Because of the constricted visibility, the California Highway Patrol is urging drivers to instrumentality other precautions and not trust solely connected what they tin see.

"When you travel up to that intersection, rotation down your window, and listen. Because if you can't spot vehicles coming, you tin much than apt perceive them coming," said Officer Daulton of the California Highway Patrol.

Fielding said information is particularly captious for his operation, arsenic astir of his clients are adults with peculiar needs. He told drivers to prioritize caution, adjacent if it means arriving late.

"I've talked to our drivers, said, hey if you request 15, 20, 30 other minutes that's wholly fine. Safety is the fig 1 priority," Fielding said.

With fog expected to persist, concern owners and drivers alike accidental patience and caution volition beryllium cardinal until conditions improve.