Words to Describe Foggy Weather

November has brought shorter days, cooler weather, and one of my favorite weather conditions – fog! It’s often there when I wake up in the morning, descending again in the evening hours. I know not everyone likes it, but it just looks so delightfully mysterious to me. I’ve always been fascinated by it.

Throughout the post, you’ll find a few original photographs that show cold, foggy mornings.

FOG

Fog is basically a cloud that forms near the ground, consisting of a high concentration of fine particles of water.

Here are a couple of adjectives that collocate with the noun ‘fog’:

patchy – uneven, appearing only in some parts
swirling – moving around
persistent – fog that doesn’t go away
thick / dense / heavy
impenetrable – extremely thick

Some of the verbs you can use with ‘fog’ are:

to descend / to roll in – to say the fog appears
to clear / to lift – to say that it disappears

A thick, yellowish fog can be described as ‘pea soup’. This condition is typically caused by pollution, so it’s quite toxic.

Speaking of toxic, you’re probably more familiar with the word ‘smog’, which is a portmanteau of the words ‘smoke’ and ‘fog’ (sm~~oke~~ + fog > smog).

Not only weather conditions can be described as foggy: people sometimes describe their memories as foggy, meaning blurred and unclear. Also, you may have experienced something called ‘brain fog’ – a syndrome that includes confusion, difficulty to concentrate, inability to remember things etc.

Additionally, if you hear someone saying “I haven’t the foggiest”, it means they don’t know anything about something; they are clueless.

MIST

Fog and mist are similar, in that they both refer to a concentration of water droplets in the atmosphere. In weather forecasts, the word fog is typically used when visibility is less than 180 metres, whereas mist has a lower density, so we can see farther. It also disperses faster than a fog.

Because it has to do with tiny water particles, the adjective misty refers to something that is wet, moist and blurry. For instance, if someone is about to cry and their eyes well up with tears, you can describe the eyes as misty.

The verb to mist can mean to spray. For example, it’s good to mist some houseplants occasionally.

You may have heard of ‘Scotch mist’. As a weather condition, it refers to a cold and heavy mist that’s almost like rain; ‘a drizzle’ would be a suitable synonym.

HAZE

Haze is sometimes confused with fog and mist, because the visual effect can be similar. However, haze doesn’t consist of water droplets at all, but of tiny particles such as those of sand and dust.

Just like ‘foggy’, the adjective ‘hazy’ can be used to say that something is unclear. For example, one can have hazy memories of something that happened, or hazy ideas – uncertain, vague statements.

Do you like foggy weather? Why or why not? Is fog typical for the area where you live? Write about it in the comments section below!