The haar

[Green Aura]

Just wanted someone to know that if I'm never heard from again, I'll probably be back in about 200 years*. The haar is currently right up to the fence, the loch and mountains have completely disappeared and I feel like I'm in a cocoon! Oh and all the visitors have gone home!!!!!

Lovely



*Brigadoon reference.

[Mrs H]

The what is at the fence?!? Xx

[spider8]

The sea haar, a mist that rolls in quite quickly. We've got it here too and it does look eerie and spooky but I like it.........mainly because I'm tucked up in the house and don't have to be out in it .

[Graye]

A bit further south we call them sea frets. Not much chance of one heer tonight though, it's pouring. I love them as long as I don't have to go out far - a bit like wading through a thick wet white fluffy blanket over everything.

[MKG]

Used to be a common word (oh, a thousand years ago or so) and it's a common placename element. Those of you who've seen a sea-fog will understand why it also came to mean boundary and grey (and, as an aside, why boundaries used to be marked by grey stones).

There's a Harworth close to me (boundary farm) which sits spot on the Yorks/Notts border.

Irrelevant to the thread, but I thought it interesting

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

Interesting. I saw my first sea fret last year (and first time I'd ever heard of the word either). It was really spooky. All these sad people sitting on the beach freezing their butts off whilst half a mile inland it was hot and sunny! Needless to say, have car will travel - back inland!

[Annpan]

First time I heard the word was staying in Fife (East coast) over the winter, the Haar comes in from the cold North Sea (I think it is the warm air from the land hitting the cold air from the sea)

I have always lived in the West and you don't get a Haar coming in off the gulf stream in the Atlantic the same, certainly not like we saw in Fife.

[Green Aura]

Used to be a common word (oh, a thousand years ago or so) and it's a common placename element. Those of you who've seen a sea-fog will understand why it also came to mean boundary and grey (and, as an aside, why boundaries used to be marked by grey stones).

There's a Harworth close to me (boundary farm) which sits spot on the Yorks/Notts border.

Irrelevant to the thread, but I thought it interesting

Mike

Thanks for the history lesson, Mike. I've learned something new, from inside my cocoon.

Still here this morning although we can just see the edge of the loch - still no mountains

[Odsox]

I have always lived in the West and you don't get a Haar coming in off the gulf stream in the Atlantic the same

Oh yes you do, or "Oh yes WE do", doesn't happen very often but is most common in July for some reason. Several years ago they had the Tall Ships race start from Castletownbere and we had haar for all of the three days they were around and funnily enough the Tall Ships were in Waterford this year and we had haar for the weekend they were there ... spooky or what?

Other times especially in spring, we get common old sea fog rolling up the bay, but that stays close to the water and we can usually see right over the top to the other side, now that DOES look eerie.

[Green Aura]

the Haar comes in from the cold North Sea

We've got clear Atlantic here Ann. The most North-Westerly village on the mainland.

[Annpan]

Well there we go then.... I have rarely seen anything as heavy as the Haar in the West, nor have I seen it travel inland the same.... it travels right up the Forth in the East. It was my Sister that reckoned you only get it off the North Sea cause it is colder.

I'm not pretending I ever lived on the coast or anything, but still... 30 years in the West and never heard of it.... a few weeks in the East (not on the coast) and everyone was talking about it

[Nature'sCalendarBev]

I used to live in Forres, between Nairn and Elgin and sometimes you could stand on top of Califer hill and look down at where the town should have been but you werejust floating in an island of haar. An amazing sight to see :-)

[Mrs H]

It sounds pretty cool!! ;)