In middle school, my geometry teacher had this corny joke:
Do you know why warm days in fall are called an Indian Summer?
Because there’s always Apache fog!
Yeah, I know it’s not PC anymore, but every morning when I hear the foghorns on the river blowing, I groan. Driving to the train station will be a real problem today, I tell myself.
Personally, I have nothing against fog. Thought.co.com says this about the science of fog:
Fog usually develops when relative humidity is near 100% and when the air temperature and dew point temperature are close to one another or less than 4˚F (2.5˚C). When air reaches 100% relative humidity and its dew point it is said to be saturated and can thus hold no more water vapor.
Fog can make for some great settings in stories! In Charles’ Dickens book, Bleak House, fog serves as a metaphor for the evil in society. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles howled out of the fog on the moor; Dr Jekyll used the fog to hide his transformation into Mr. Hyde. Philip Hoare of The Guardian says, “Fog is transcendent. It muffles our world.”
But I prefer my foggy view from my own window or front yard, instead of peering through a windshield when the stuff of mysteries and London fame make driving with keratoconus in the dark a much bigger adventure than I need at 6 AM!
I once heard that all the English girls have such lovely complexions because of the fog. Do you like fog? Do you have a memory of a foggy time?