Originally Posted by EagleDriver

I was trying to takeoff from RNO a few months ago. Low layer of very thick fog, but it was probably very thin too. Tower was reporting Rwy 16R RVR @ 600' (below minimums), surface visibility 1/2 mile (above minimums). Sounds like a pretty strange observation, right? There is no RVR installed on the North runways, 34L or 34R so prevailing visibility applies. (Why the tower felt that this was an acceptable observation is another story. Every accident has a series of events, this could have been one of the preventable ones if there had been an incident.)

That reported observation made it "legal" to takeoff on Rwy 34L but when we taxied down to the runway for takeoff we could see only two runway edge lights. That's 400' if I'm not mistaken. Well below takeoff minimums for any commercial operation. We pulled over to the side to wait for the fog to burn off. As we sat there the visibility ranged from less than 200' (we could not see the runway lights at all) to 400', yet we saw 2 Southwest 737's and a Horizon Qprop takeoff without hesitation.