Pogonip (weather)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (March 2008)

Pogonip is a type of fog consisting of ice crystals suspended in the air. The name "pogonip" is an English adaptation of the Shoshone word meaning "cloud" ('payinappih')^[1]. Pogonip only forms under the right conditions, the humidity has to be near 100% as the air temperature drops to below 0°C, allowing ice crystals to form in the air. The ice crystals will then settle onto surfaces.

A Pogonip is a very rarely occurring frozen fog composed of fine ice needles instead of water droplets that forms in the mountain valleys of the western United States during winter. Two reasons why it means White Death: 1. The pogonip fog is so thick you can't even see your hand. Go out in it and you'll be lost in seconds. If it lingers you'll die of starvation or exposure. 2. Breathing pogonip can damage your lungs thus the term "white death".^{[citation needed]} In The Old Farmer's Almanac, in the calendar for December, the phrase "Beware the Pogonip" regularly appears.

[edit] References

^ MerriamWebster

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

Pogonip: a Paiute word adapted into the English language in 1865; a dense winter fog containing frozen particles that if formed in deep mountain valleys in Western United States: source Webster's Dictionary, contributed to this page by F.Bryan

According to Merriam Webster "the English-speaking settlers who encountered this unpleasant and sometimes scary phenomenon when they went out West in the 1800s needed a word for it. They borrowed 'payinappih' ('cloud') from Shoshone, altering it to 'pogonip.'"