Port-Harcourt, 38c, foggy, unable to land...

We, Europeans, are used to observe fog during winter, or eventually mid-season, when very particular weather conditions occurs.

Some places are well known for their permanent "low visibility situation", let's say London, Milan, or even the very famous Geneva stratus (the city, surrounded by mountains and a major lake, is covered by a never-ending thin grey roof, which offers spectacular view when you escape it, looking at the alps summits you have all around).

What is more surprising is to hear on approach "Ladies & Gentlemen, we have started our descent to Port Harcourt Intl airport, the weather reported is foggy, with a temperature of 38c, I hope you enjoyed your flight with us today, ...", listening to the ATIS, you may hear something like "Port Harcourt / two-eight-zero-seven-zero-zero Zulu / two-one-zero-one-zero knots / visibility one hundred meters / broken zero-one-five / few zero-two-three / fog / temperature three-eight / QNH one-zero-one-four".

ATIS doesn't talk about any due point, maybe we can think about introducing a tropical-pollution-point, which could appears to be quite useful in the area.

The Niger Delta area is made of rivers, trees, dense vegetation, and the whole antic petroleum extraction system, bringing all together a perfect "micro-climate" that helps the fog to be attached to the field.

For a very long-time, Port Harcourt International Airport was offering no lightning, no ILS (and no immigration, which sounds a bit weird for an international airport), so any kind of traffic which was approaching in any other moment than a great clear sky during day time (does it even exist here ?) was sent to Lagos, or any available field.

Nigeria is a great place for an excited and very motivated ground-ops manager. Reading his NOTAM's, and regardless any "intra-company issues", he may witness sand storm in Kano, no a/c-stairs available in Benin city, zero-fuel in Enugu, airport closed in Maiduguri due to ethnic conflicts, traffic restriction in Abuja due to presidential flight (usually this does never get published on a NOTAM, but noticed by cockpit crew when the flight is on final approach), ... And all at the same time.

Stay tunned...