World's Foggiest Place:

Argentia, Newfoundland has an average of 206 days of fog each year. The record was set in 1966, with 230 foggy days in one year.

a) Advection fog- forms when humid air flows over cold ground or water.

b) Radiation fog- forms on generally clear, cool nights.

c) Steam fog- forms over water, often in the fall.

d) Precipitation fog- forms when rain or snow falls.

Thursday, August 18; Barrington to Yarmouth 87 km (54 mi.)

Our last day: Our final leg is around the southwest tip of Nova Scotia - one of the foggiest places on earth. A mix of Scotish heritage and French speaking Acadian fishing villages share the shore. Afetr a break at one last ocean lookoff, it will be on to Yarmouth, and our farewells.

-from The Nova Scotia Bicycle Tour's August, 2005 itenary.

'Fog and a cloud are the same thing, only at different altitudes. Fog is simply a cloud lying on the earth, while clouds are fog floating in the sky.'

-"Crap About Earth & The Universe"

As precipitation falls into drier air below the cloud, the liquid drops or ice crystals evaporate or sublimate directly into water vapor. The water vapor increases the moisture content of the air while cooling the air. This often saturates the air below the cloud and allows fog to form.

Upslope fog is very common along large hills and mountains. It forms when winds blow up the side of a hill or mountain, which cools the air.

In 1758, a fog of 'strange and extraordinary appearance' was witnessed by several Colonials in Connecticut. They said it arrived in thick bodies that would "break" when it struck buildings. Odder still, it emitted such heat that they found it difficult to breathe near it.

-from 'When Nature Goes Nuts"

'All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.'

-Karl von Clausewitz

'Pea Soup':

The term arose in 19th-century Britain. One of the by-products of the industrial revolution was a massive increase in the smoke and sulphur put into the atmosphere by factories, etc. When combined with fog, the result was totally different to the white fogs seen in rural areas - because of the dirty yellow-brown color, they were named "pea soupers". These poisonous combinations of smoke and fog continued to occur until 1952, when a five-day "pea souper" over London is estimated to have caused 4,000 premature deaths through bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. Cold weather meant an increase in coal-burning, and meteorological conditions led to the pollutants being trapped at ground level. Subsequent changes in legislation phased out open coal fires, and "pea soupers" are now a thing of the past in Britain.

This is the fog, it's really not so bad

Like a homeland

As if I need a home

Well I need a home

This is the fog, it's really not so bad

Like a dreamland

What I want, you see is never what I have

And so I reach for someone else

It's really not so bad

Living in the fog

I can live and never, ever

Ever see the blue sky

Well this is the fog

It's how I've chosen to keep living

When life leaves me alone

I know you think it's sad

But it's really not so bad

And it's all, and it's all, all, all...

This is the fog

My life is a fog, a fog.

-Lyrics to 'The Fog', by Pale Divine

Robert 'Fog-Buster' Foulis was a man of 'vision'. The steam foghorn he invented in the nineteenth century was heard along the coast of North America and much beyond for nearly a century. His invention saved thousands of lives, yet his name was not even recorded above his grave in Saint John, New Brunswick, when he died in 1866.

Valley fog forms in mountain valleys during winter and can be more than 1,500 feet thick. Often, the winter sun is not strong enough to evaporate the fog during the day. When the air cools again the following night, the fog often becomes thicker, which makes it even harder for the sun to burn it off the following day. These fogs can last for several days until strong winds blow the moist air out of the valley.

'It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog.'

-Joseph Conrad

'Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog,

Where no one notices the contrast of white on white.

And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view,

Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.'

-Lyrics from 'Round Here' by The Counting Crows

Top 10 Coolest Showbiz Nicknames:

#10. 'The Velvet Fog': Mel Torme was one of the most popular crooners of his time. Although jazz interested him more, Torme's manager convinced him to become a crooner as it was a more lucrative musical genre. Early on in his career, fans started calling him 'The Velvet Fog' in reference to his rich, silky, distinctive voice. Strangely, Torme always hated the nickname.

Fog of Death: London, 1952

In England, 1952. From December 5 to 9, the Thames Valley, and particularly London, were blanketed with fog confined by a temperature inversion. During the five days there were 2,000 deaths in London, and some 10,000 more in the surrounding area. This rates as the greatest fog disaster of all time, although 2,000 deaths among 8 million people are not nearly as many, proportionally, as 20 among 13,000 at Denora, Pennsylvania in 1948. It's assumed that sulphur compounds were responsible, which are easily smelled and known to have been present. In an area the size of Michigan, England burns half as much coal as the entire United States.

Lighthouses were introduced thousands years ago by the ancient Egyptians. They lit fires on top of hills to guide ships, then later the Romans built lighthouses at a number of ports. They soon established towers with an ongoing light, and their were most likely produced by a system of multiple flames and mirrors. Today, after the development of advanced electronic navigation aids, the number of active lighthouses has declined. There are currently only about 1,400 lighthouses in use around the world.

'Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.'

-Henri Matisse