Coastal fog - what do you call it?

[peterb]

Dunno, but you can almost predict a haar whenever there's a south-easterly along the east coast in the summer. The lines of equal sea temperature (isotherms?) run out north easterly from the coast. The August plot shows a line at 17C extending north-easterly from the Thames Estuary, then others at 16C from Lowestoft, 15C from Grimsby, 14C from Whitby and 13C from Berwick. Look in the Admiralty North Sea Pilots. So a south-easterly comes across sea several degrees warmer than the sea at the coast; the air picks up moisture over the warmer sea then drops it as it cools down, giving the mist/fret/haar/roke/what-have-you. It's one of those classic situations that is taught (or ought to be) in the Met section of every shore-based sailing course.

 

[bilbobaggins]

Yes. Several times, yes.

"....warm moist air advected over a cold sea."

Here are some more bog-standard locations for *spring/early summer* sea fog.....

NW of Guernsey, NW of Brittany, Solway Firth/Morecambe Bay, N of Costa del Muerte - all due to cold water upwelling and snow-melt run-off. And if you venture north of Ardnamurchan before the First of May, you'll need to watch out for the dreaded ice-blink! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[sarabande]

Oi knew that Exmoor was a bit behind the times, but Middle English Spoken Here ? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif thanks

 

[peterb]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds like the most norse word to me as it is called (sjö)rök in Swedish and the Norwegian pronounciation should sound something like "royk". The meaning is essentially (sea)smoke.

Haar isn't something that I can connect to any Scandinavian/Norse word, at least right now...

[/ QUOTE ]

But sea smoke is something different. It happens when very cold air passes over a warmer sea (the other way round to haar). The water evaporating from the sea re-condenses to form wisps of mist close to the surface. Uncommon round English coasts, but sometimes found round Scotland. Heat some water up in a frying pan, remove from the heat, and look at the wispy steam above the pan; that's sea smoke. You'll sometimes hear it mentioned in the shipping forecast: "poor - smoke"

 

[Cornishman]

[ QUOTE ]
You'll sometimes hear it mentioned in the shipping forecast: "poor - smoke"

[/ QUOTE ]

That used to be in the coastal station report from Ronaldsway when there was an easterly wind. It referred to all the gunge coming from NW England's industrial heartlands. Not so much about these days.

 

[Lakesailor]

Don't know about Jenku's explanation but these pics (from the link I gave) are what we knew as a roke

 

[dsw]

as thick as pee soup !