LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Taking a walk on a foggy morning is like pushing the mute button.

The surroundings are cloaked in a mysterious vapor that renders the environment nearly silent.

You can imagine that you're strolling in a black and white photograph from your childhood. (That is, if you're old enough to remember those pinking-sheared edge pictures of your past.)

Or, you can imagine that you're meandering in a black and white film noir setting in a misty bog. The damp fingers of Spanish moss drape down from the oaks, lending the proper ambiance for a fog-walk, and a deer is rendered nearly white in the mirage-like surroundings.

Fog, a well-designed hydration system in Lake County can take several forms. For example, the “bridal veil” fog that drapes itself elegantly over the mountains like a grand lady wrapped in a stole.

We have valley fog here during the winter months. Valley fog, called “tule fog” in the Central Valley is formed when the valley cools after sundown in otherwise clear weather conditions. Then, when the temperature reaches dew point, fog forms, lasting only until the new day's sun-rays dissipate it.

The coastal regions receive sea fog, or haar, which is born from sea-spray and salt crystals in the atmosphere.

Our state's redwood forests depend on moisture from fog-drip. Those giants receive nearly 40 percent of their water supplies from fog.

The damp sea coat of fog in the Redwood Empire still keeps many secrets from science, however fog has been one of the numerous research stations utilized within the Pepperwood Preserve outside of Santa Rosa, in the Mayacamas Mountains that we share, via the US Geological Survey and the Pacific Coastal Fog Team.

Unfortunately, the preserve has been caught in fires for the past two years, so they are hard at work rebuilding some of the areas that were devastated.

Their fog-cycle research stations link to the coast where fog banks can envelop California's coasts from one hundred-yards in width up to over one hundred miles. Their sensitive technology can determine the type and amounts of moisture received at any given time.

There are other forms of fog in nature, such as ice fog, hail fog, frontal fog, advection fog and more.

Fog has played an important part in some historical events such as when Gen. George Washington used fog to mask his troops from the British Army and escape, or on the beaches of Normandy during World War II when fog played havoc with visibility.

The incomparable combinations of weather that we live within derive from the delicate balance of forces in mystifying nature, creating one more reason to love Lake County.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”