Yesterday everyone in the Mont Fleuri-Victoria area was wondering if there was a fire around as the air was misty and hazy. But to reassure the public, there was no fire. It was actually a normal reaction from evaporation and there is nothing to worry about, says the Seychelles Meteorological Authority (SMA).

“Based on experience, I would say the fogs are created by two main things – We are supposed to be in our rainy season, but rain frequency has reduced quite a bit. But what we are witnessing is that evaporation is continuing. The evaporation might be combining with other particles in the atmosphere and when they come together, we can lose visibility,” explained Vincent Amelie, chief executive of SMA.

The question is where do the particles come from? At the SMA there is another hypothesis: “Our north west wind is very strong and comes from the north. So, if the countries in the north are polluted, the wind can bring some particles on our islands. To confirm this, this is something the Ministry of Environment can test the air to see if there is pollution in our air. This situation will repeat itself but this weekend we are expecting some rain and this will disappear,” explained Mr Amelie.

According to National Geographic, fog is a cloud that touches the ground. Fog can be thin or thick, meaning people have difficulty seeing through it. In some conditions, fog can be so thick that it makes it hard to drive safely because it obscures the road and other cars.

Fog shows up when water vapour, or water in its gaseous form, condenses. During condensation, molecules of water vapour combine to make tiny liquid water droplets that hang in the air. You can see fog because of these tiny water droplets. Water vapour, a gas, is invisible.

Fog happens when it’s very, very humid. There has to be a lot of water vapour in the air for fog to form.

Depending on the humidity and temperature, fog can form very suddenly and then disappear just as quickly. This is called flash fog.

Source: Seychelles Nation