Mist is a phenomenon caused by small droplets of water suspended in air. It can occur as part of natural weather or volcanic activity, and is common in cold air above warmer water, in exhaled air in the cold, and in a steam room of a sauna. It can also be created artificially with aerosol canisters if the humidity conditions are right.
The only difference between mist and fog is visibility. This phenomenon is called fog if the visibility is one kilometre (1,100 yards) or less (in the UK for driving purposes the definition of fog is visibility less than 200 metres, for pilots the distance is 1 kilometre). Otherwise it is known as mist. Seen from a distance, mist is bluish, and haze is more brownish.
Religious connotations are associated with mist in some cultures; it is used as a metaphor in 2 Peter 2:17.
Mist makes a beam of light visible from the side via refraction and reflection on the suspended water droplets.
"Scotch mist" is a light steady drizzle.
Mist usually occurs near the shores, and is often associated with fog. Mist can be as high as mountain tops when extreme temperatures are low.
Read more about Mist: Freezing Mist
Famous quotes containing the word mist:
“We had hardly got out of the streets of Bangor before I began to be exhilarated by the sight of the wild fir and spruce tops, and those of other primitive evergreens, peering through the mist in the horizon. It was like the sight and odor of cake to a schoolboy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feelings than the fumes of charcoal.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“After mist has wrapped us again
in fine wool, may the taste of salt
recall to us the great depths about us.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)