Alpine Haze

Abstract

THAT no letter has appeared on the common occurrence of this phenomenon in the British Isles is one of a thousand tokens of the small amount of interest in atmospheric phenomena taken by the public in this country. In bright days when the atmosphere at the earth's surface is nearly calm and moderately dry, the sky being nearly devoid of clouds, horizontal layers of buff-coloured haze may be frequently seen near the horizon in almost every locality in the British Isles where the air is free from the smoke of our large towns. I do not happen to have seen it nor have I heard of its occurrence on the west coasts of Scotland or of Norway. I have frequently noticed it when out of sight of land. It would be interesting to know whether it is seen at a distance of 400 or 500 miles from the nearest shore. At St. Aubin's, Jersey, at an elevation at which the French coast near St. Malo is rarely visible, a stria of this haze is often the accompaniment of mirage, the inverted image of the white-tipped rocks appearing to hang from the layer of haze, and the mirage disappearing with a change of the observer's elevation, but the line of haze remaining visible. The mirage was, when first seen, mistaken for a few minutes by some members of my family for a series of water-spouts.