Earlier this morning, Gothamist's RSS feed from Weather.com told us we were experiencing "fog." Later, it changed (and still reads as Gothamist types this) to the creepy, zombies-rising-out-of-the-swamp description "haze." If you visit NYTimes.com, you'll notice that they're calling our conditions "mist." Gothamist has a feeling these terms aren't necessarily synonyms. So what the heck is the difference between fog, haze and mist?
Here's what Gothamist has been able to dig up so far. Fog means that visibility is reduced to under one kilometer. Mist has the same chemical makeup as fog, it just reduces visibility less than fog does. Mist = Fog Lite. Haze is distinguishable from fog and mist because it takes on a "yellowish or blueish tinge." This is because while fog and mist are made up primarily of water droplets, haze may contain "fine dust or salt particles." Aha.
Gothamist hopes Joe, our resident meteorology expert--or any other science buffs out there--can expand on these thoughts. How are fog, haze and mist measured? What's the difference between mist and, say, drizzle? Since few people probably know the strict definitions of each term, do weatherpeople tend to use them in forecasts interchangeably? Where the heck does the dust and salt in the haze come from? And what do colloids have to do with any of this? Enlighten us with your comments.
