If you live in the Bay Area, you may know that our perennial fog has a name — Karl.

“In the beginning the fog was a little oppressive," says Kristie Tappan, who moved to San Francisco from Reno, Nevada. "But when I found out about Karl the Fog, it actually made the fog a friendlier presence and more of a neighbor than just bad weather."

Bay Curious is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, NPR One or your favorite podcast platform.

Which is why Kristie wants to know more, and asked Bay Curious to tell her how the fog became Karl the Fog.

The Origin

It all started on Twitter, when the account @KarlTheFog popped into existence in August 2010.