Liquid water content of summertime coastal California fog events, San Mateo County

Measurements of liquid water content (LWC) of coastal fog events were collected using specialized fog water collection units during the hot dry summer season (July to September) and continued through the winter. These data were assembled to explore the potential of fog water collection as a water resource for Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District public lands in San Mateo County, California. Simultaneous meteorological measurements were collected for four variables: wind, temperature, humidity, and solar radiation. The dataset includes ~12,000 records for two summers (2016 and 2017) at two sites. One site was a grassland near the MROSD Skyline Field Office (SFO) and the other in a Douglas forest clearing at the MROSD North Purisima (NPUR) trailhead. The fog water collecting experiment also compared six mesh for collection efficiency, three coated with NBD-Nano hydrophobic formulation and three left uncoated. Each mesh was affixed to standard 1.00 m2 frames. The three mesh types were coated or left uncoated. They were 1) double-layer 35% shade coefficient Raschel; 2) stainless steel 0.02 in, 49% shade coeffient wire mesh, and 3) FogHaTin, a 3-dimensional specialty textile weave. The data show that the highest collection, 67 litres, came during the fog event of August 14, 2017 at SFO. The NBD coated FogHaTin mesh collected the most water (14 l) from that fog event and the uncoated metal collecting the least (12 l). The total collected from all 18 fog events that occurred during the 8/4 - 9/20/2017 period was 171.34 l at SFO and at 44.95 l at NPUR.