The term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated locally (such as from a nearby body of water, like a lake or the ocean, or from nearby moist ground or marshes).[2]

By definition, fog reduces visibility to less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi), whereas mist causes lesser impairment of visibility.[3]

For aviation purposes in the UK, a visibility of less than 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) but greater than 999 metres (3,278 ft) which is considered to be mist if the relative humidity is 95% or greater; below 95%, haze is reported

Fog forms when the difference between air temperature and dew point is less than 2.5 °C (4.5 °F).[5]]

Fog begins to form when water vapor condenses into tiny liquid water droplets that are suspended in the air. Some examples of ways that water vapor is added to the air are by wind convergence into areas of upward motion;[6] precipitation or virga falling from above;[7] daytime heating evaporating water from the surface of oceans, water bodies, or wet land;[8] transpiration from plants;[9] cool or dry air moving over warmer water;[10] and lifting air over mountains.[11] Water vapor normally begins to condense on condensation nuclei such as dust, ice, and salt in order to form clouds.[12][13] Fog, like its elevated cousin stratus, is a stable cloud deck which tends to form when a cool, stable air mass is trapped underneath a warm air mass.[14]]

Fog normally occurs at a relative humidity near 100%.[15] This occurs from either added moisture in the air, or falling ambient air temperature.[15] However, fog can form at lower humidities, and can sometimes fail to form with relative humidity at 100%. At 100% relative humidity, the air cannot hold additional moisture, thus, the air will become supersaturated if addistu]

re is added.]

Fog commonly produces precipitation in the form of drizzle or very light snow. Drizzle occurs when the humidity of fog attains 100% and the minute cloud droplets begin to coalesce into larger droplets.[16] This can occur when the fog layer is lifted and cooled sufficiently, or when it is forcibly compressed from above by descending air. Drizzle becomes freezing drizzle when the temperature at the surface drops below the freezing point.]

The thickness of a fog layer is largely determined by the altitude of the inversion boundary, which in coastal or oceanic locales is also the top of the marine layer, above which the air mass is warmer and drier. The inversion boundary varies its altitude primarily in response to the weight of the air above it, which is measured in terms of atmospheric pressure. The marine layer, and any fogbank it may contain, will be "squashed" when the pressure is high, and conversely, may expand upwards when the pressure above it is lowering.]

Types]]

Fog can form in a number of ways, depending on how the cooling that caused the condensation occurred.]

Radiation fog is formed by the cooling of land after sunset by infrared thermal radiation in calm conditions with a clear sky. The cooling ground then cools adjacent air by conduction, causing the air temperature to fall and reach the dew point, forming fog. In perfect calm, the fog layer can be less than a meter thick, but turbulence can promote a thicker layer. Radiation fog occurs at night, and usually does not last long after sunrise, but it can persist all day in the winter months, especially in areas bounded by high ground. Radiation fog is most common in autumn and early winter. Examples of this phenomenon include the Tule fog.[17]]

Ground fog is fog that obscures less than 60% of the sky and does not extend to the base of any overhead clouds.[18] However, the term is usually a synonym for shallow radiation fog; in some cases the depth of the fog is on the order of tens of centimeters over certain kinds of terrain with the absence of wind.]

Advection fog layer in San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge and skyline in the background]

Advection fog occurs when moist air passes over a cool surface by advection (wind) and is cooled.[19] It is common as a warm front passes over an area with significant snow-pack. It is most common at sea when moist air encounters cooler waters, including areas of cold water upwelling, such as along the California coast (see San Francisco fog). A strong enough temperature difference over water or bare ground can also cause advection fog.]

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Although strong winds often mix the air and can disperse, fragment, or prevent many kinds of fog, markedly warmer and humid air blowing over a snowpack can continue to generate advection fog at elevated velocities up to 80 km/h (50 mph) or more – this fog will be in a turbulent, rapidly moving, and comparatively shallow layer, observed as a few centimeters/inches in depth over flat farm fields, flat urban terrain and the like, and/or form more complex forms where the terrain is different such as rotating areas in the lee of hills or large buildings and so on.]

Fog formed by advection along the California coastline is propelled onto land by one of several processes. A cold front can push the marine layer coast-ward, an occurrence most typical in the spring or late fall. During the summer months, a low pressure trough produced by intense heating inland creates a strong pressure gradient, drawing in the dense marine layer. Also during the summer, strong high pressure aloft over the desert southwest, usually in connection with the summer monsoon, produces a south to southeasterly flow which can drive the offshore marine layer up the coastline; a phenomenon known as a "southerly surge", typically following a coastal heat spell. However, if the monsoonal flow is sufficiently turbulent, it might instead break up the marine layer and any fog it may contain. Moderate turbulence will typically transform a fog bank, lifting it and breaking it up into shallow convective clouds called stratocumulus.]

Evaporation fog or steam fog forms over bodies of water overlain by much colder air; this situation can also lead to the formation of steam devils, which look like dust counterparts. Lake effect fog is of this type, sometimes in combination with other causes like radiation fog. It tends to differ from most advective fog formed over land in that it is, like lake-effect snow, a convective phenomenon, resulting in fog that can be very dense and deep and looks fluffy from above.]

Frontal fog forms in much the same way as stratus cloud near a front when raindrops, falling from relatively warm air above a frontal surface, evaporate into cooler air close to the Earth's surface and cause it to become saturated. This type of fog can be the result of a very low frontal stratus cloud subsiding to surface level in the absence of any lifting agent after the front passes.]

Ice fog forms in very low temperatures and can be the result of other mechanisms mentioned here, as well as the exhalation of moist warm air by herds of animals. It can be associated with the diamond dust form of precipitation, in which very small crystals of ice form and slowly fall. This often occurs during blue sky conditions, which can cause many types of halos and other results of refraction of sunlight by the airborne crystals.]

Freezing fog, which deposits rime, is composed of droplets of supercooled water that freeze to surfaces on contact.]

Precipitation fog (or frontal fog) forms as precipitation falls into drier air below the cloud, the liquid droplets evaporate into water vapor. The water vapor cools and at the dewpoint it condenses and fog forms.]

Hail fog sometimes occurs in the vicinity of significant hail accumulations due to decreased temperature and increased moisture leading to saturation in a very shallow layer near the surface. It most often occurs when there is a warm, humid layer atop the hail and when wind is light. This ground fog tends to be localized but can be extremely dense and abrupt. It may form shortly after the hail falls; when the hail has had time to cool the air and as it absorbs heat when melting and evaporating.[20]]

Upslope fog forms when moist air is going up the slope of a mountain or hill (orographic lifting) which condenses into fog on account of adiabatic cooling, and to a lesser extent the drop in pressure with altitude.]

Freezing fog occurs when liquid fog droplets freeze to surfaces, forming white soft or hard rime.[21] This is very common on mountain tops which are exposed to low clouds. It is equivalent to freezing rain, and essentially the same as the ice that forms inside a freezer which is not of the "frostless" or "frost-free" type. The term "freezing fog" may also refer to fog where water vapor is super-cooled, filling the air with small ice crystals similar to very light snow. It seems to make the fog "tangible", as if one could "grab a handful".]]]

In the western United States, freezing fog may be referred to as pogonip.[22] It occurs commonly during cold winter spells, usually in deep mountain valleys. The word pogonip is derived from the Shoshone word paγi̵nappi̵h, which means "cloud".[22][23] In The Old Farmer's Almanac, in the calendar for December, the phrase "Beware the Pogonip" regularly appears. In his anthology Smoke Bellew, Jack London described a pogonip which surrounded the main characters, killing one of them.

The phenomenon is also extremely common in the inland areas of the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures in the 10 to 30 °F (−12 to −1 °C) range. The Columbia Plateau experiences this phenomenon most years due to temperature inversions, sometimes lasting for as long as three weeks. The fog typically begins forming around the area of the Columbia River and expands, sometimes covering the land to distances as far away as LaPine, Oregon, almost 150 miles (240 km) due south of the river and into south central Washington.

Frozen fog (also known as ice fog) is any kind of fog where the droplets have frozen into extremely tiny crystals of ice in midair. Generally this requires temperatures at or below −35 °C (−31 °F), making it common only in and near the Arctic and Antarctic regions.[24] It is most often seen in urban areas where it is created by the freezing of water vapor present in automobile exhaust and combustion products from heating and power generation. Urban ice fog can become extremely dense and will persist day and night until the temperature rises. Extremely small amounts of ice fog falling from the sky form a type of precipitation called ice crystals, often reported in Utqiagvik, Alaska. Ice fog often leads to the visual phenomenon of light pillars.

Smog is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a contraction (portmanteau) of the words smoke and fog to refer to smoky fog; its opacity, and odor.[1] The word was then intended to refer to what was sometimes known as pea soup fog, a familiar and serious problem in London from the 19th century to the mid-20th century. This kind of visible air pollution is composed of nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, ozone, smoke and other particulates. Man-made smog is derived from coal combustion emissions, vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, forest and agricultural fires and photochemical reactions of these emissions.illars.illar.

Smog is often categorized as being either summer smog or winter smog. Summer smog is primarily associated with the photochemical formation of ozone. During the summer season when the temperatures are warmer and there is more sunlight present, photochemical smog is the dominant type of smog formation. During the winter months when the temperatures are colder, and atmospheric inversions are common, there is an increase in coal and other fossil fuel usage to heat homes and buildings. These combustion emissions, together with the lack of pollutant dispersion under inversions, characterize winter smog formation. While photochemical smog is the main smog formation mechanism during summer months, winter smog episodes are still common. Smog formation in general relies on both primary and secondary pollutants. Primary pollutants are emitted directly from a source, such as emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal combustion. Secondary pollutants, such as ozone, are formed when primary pollutants undergo chemical reactions in thee

Photochemical smog, as found for example in Los Angeles, is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes. These pollutants react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog. In certain other cities, such as Delhi, smog severity is often aggravated by stubble burning in neighboring agricultural areas. The atmospheric pollution levels of Los Angeles, Beijing, Delhi, Lahore, Mexico City, Tehran and other cities are often increased by an inversion that traps pollution close to the ground. The developing smog is usually toxic to humans and can cause severe sickness, a shortened life span, or premature death.