Where Did The Term 'Socked In' Come From?
KPIX 5 Morning Weather Anchor Roberta Gonzales answers the questions you never get to ask on-air.
Q: Roberta, it was foggy again this morning. Where did the term, "socked in" come from? - Kathy Munch, Sebastopol
A: Love This Question!
The term, "socked in" is tossed around during our "June gloom" foggy mornings here in the San Francisco Bay Area. But where did such a term come from?
From what I have learned, it is a term dating back to 1944. It's basically derived from pilots and traffic control workers. The thought is, while looking across the airport runway to check out the "windsock" to see which way the wind is blowing, if you can NOT see the windsock, you are "socked in" with clouds and have no business flying!
A little fun fact on our cloudy Tuesday morning!
By the way, low clouds caused delays of 15-45 minutes at San Francisco International Tuesday morning, but the fog should burn off eventually.
I would love to hear from you! Please send weather questions, observations and photos to me, Gonzales@kpix.cbs.com and I look forward to hearing from you!