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Garúa is a Spanish word meaning drizzle or mist. Although used in other contexts in the Spanish-speaking world, garúa most importantly refers to the moist cold fog that blankets the coasts of Peru, southern Ecuador, and northern Chile, especially during the southern hemisphere winter. In Chile, a similar fog is called camanchaca.
Lomas (Spanish for "hills"), also called fog oases and mist oases, are areas of fog-watered vegetation in the coastal desert of Peru and northern Chile. About 100 lomas near the Pacific Ocean are identified between 5°S and 30°S latitude, a north–south distance of about 2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi).
In fog oases called "lomas" the moisture from the garúa permits vegetation to flourish without rainfall. The moisturizing impact of the fog is increased by the high average humidity of the coastal deserts. For example, Lima has an average humidity of 84 percent, more than double the average humidity of most deserts. [6]
Another way fog forms in deserts occurs when a desert is close to an ocean which has a cold current. When air is heated over desert land and blows towards the cool water in the ocean, it condenses and fog is formed. The cool fog is then blown inland by the ocean breeze. Fog is mainly formed in the early morning or after sunset. [5]
Cold drop (Spanish: gota fría; archaic as a meteorological term), colloquially, any high impact rainfall event along the Mediterranean coast of Spain; Drought, a prolonged water supply shortage, often caused by persistent lack of, or much reduced, rainfall; Floods. Flash flood; Rainstorm; Red rain in Kerala (for related phenomena, see Blood ...
By definition, fog reduces visibility to less than 1 km (0.62 mi), whereas mist causes lesser impairment of visibility. [4] For aviation purposes in the United Kingdom, a visibility of less than 5 km (3.1 mi) but greater than 999 m (3,278 ft) is considered to be mist if the relative humidity is 95% or greater; below 95%, haze is reported.
The camanchaca, mist over the Atacama Desert, Chile. Camanchaca in Bosque de Fray Jorge National Park. Camanchacas are marine stratocumulus cloud banks that form on the Chilean coast, by the Earth's driest desert, the Atacama Desert, and move inland. In Peru, a similar fog is called garúa, and in Angola cacimbo.
Autumn (October to December) is the wettest season, while July is the driest month. The high humidity and the prevailing off-shore winds make fog and mist common along the north west coast; this phenomenon is less frequent a short distance inland because the mountains form a barrier to the maritime moisture.