Mahurangi morning mist

Yesterday, son, tsuken, resident of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, complained of the weather, despite that it produced a great subject for him to blip. I reminded him that we get their weather when they (it) have (has) finished with it (them).

True. Too true. Although I didn't hear it, the sound of the very heavy rain overnight woke daughter Jesafly a number of times. Today has been as he described, albeit minus the hailstones.

On my run this morning I went south east along the peninsula, and looked westward towards Mahurangi West across the very tidal Mahurangi River. More an estuary at this point. My first sight of it is this photo (later shots lacked the special feel this one has).

It looked and felt like mist. But was it fog? I have long had this sort of idea that mist comes down (low cloud) and fog comes up. This was definitely coming up the valleys from down by the Mahurangi. Looked up some info. The first thing I found was about fog, and told me that fog is produced when droplets of water form in the air as it reaches the same temperature as the dew point of the ground. Ah Ha! thought I. Fog it is because fog comes up. Curiosity drove me to investigate the cause of mist. Identical.

The difference, I discover, is that visibility in mist is still more than 1 km, and in fog it is less than 1 km.

So this was mist. Just so you know. Because now I know. When I was lad, Hamilton truly had fog. Not because it came off the river, but because when bad only half the rugby field was visible on a winter Saturday morning.