Coastal fog - what do you call it?

[Cornishman]

A forecaster on the BBC R4 Today programme this morning spoke of Haar when that master of interrupting somebody who is speaking, John Humphries, cried out Haar? with a large question mark in his intonation, ignoramus that he is.
Coastal fog has different names in different parts of the country. Some, f'rinstance, call it Fret. What do you call it?

 

[Deleted member 478]

Fog.

 

[MoodySabre]

Murk

 

[Cornishman]

But what sort? It matters.

 

[boatmike]

That's original! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Iota]

sea fret as adverse to a hill fret i.e. on moors etc

Iota

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Yep.... we're users of the grand term 'Murk' to.......

 

[KenMcCulloch]

Haar is very specific to the east coast of Scotland, appearing on a NE wind in the spring and early summer. On the west coast of Scotland fog is fog.

 

[Chrusty1]

Sludge.........as in "it's looking a bit sludgey out there today".........

By the way, John Humphries, ignorant??? He may be a lot of things, but I don't think you can rightly say that he is ignorant.

 

[jimi]

Clag

 

[Fascadale]

I agree with Ken McC

Haar is fairly specific to the North Sea coast and is usually a spring/early summer event. Something to do with cold water and warm winds, or is it warm wind an cold water.

It can be a real curse in Edinburgh. If you live near the shore you can spend a week in cold dark clammy stuff when half a mile up the road is in glorious sunshine

On the West Coast it's just fog

 

[EdWingfield]

Ken, haar is in use here, as well as fret.

 

[bilbobaggins]

'Haar' is derivative in the Northumberland and Fife dialects from Norse/Dansk roots, and one will hear it used from Aberdeenshire to Whitby.
There is also 'Smirn', which also describes a tiny-droplet, soaking drizzle - which is one step up from 'haar'. It's the same stuff....

Just as the Inuit have close on a thousand words for snow, so do the Scots have a similar number of expressions for rain - not all of 'em repeatable on a family show!

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Hyperborean]

Sea fog/Haar. Formed when air which is close to saturation passes over a colder surface ie the sea. This causes cooling of the air mass so bringing the temperature down to the dew point. The moisture condenses out as fog or drizzle. This is a more dynamic process that the gentle cooling over land which is why sea fog can be found in 40kts of wind. Incidentally in my experience of the East Coast of Scotland it is more prevalent in SE rather thn NE winds.

 

[pyrojames]

Bloody annoying!

 

[jimi]

We used to call that mixture of mist and drizzle mizzle

 

[Fascadale]

[ QUOTE ]
We used to call that mixture of mist and drizzle mizzle

[/ QUOTE ]

We still do, too often

 

[Lakesailor]

Used to be called a roke (spelling?) in East Yorkshire

 

[kds]

"Burnham Blight" on this side of the Bristol Channel.
Ken

 

[sarabande]

FWIW on Exmoor, I've heard low cloud and fog described as "myseling".