Camanchaca

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. On the side of the mountains where these cloud banks form, the camanchaca is a dense fog that does not produce rain.[1] The moisture that makes up the cloud measure between 1 and 40 microns across, too fine to form rain droplets.[2]

  1. ^ Vesilind, Priit J. (2003). "The Driest Place on Earth". National Geographic. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  2. ^ Lavars, Nick (August 25, 2015). "How Chile's fogcatchers are bringing water to the driest desert on Earth". www.gizmag.com. Retrieved 2015-08-25.