So what's the story with the fog that sticks around all day just about every day? Is this a permanent feature until January or does it dissipate once it gets cold? I'm a sea level kind of person so this isn't familiar climate.

It's worse up here on the 'hillsides' (Every Swiss I've talked to tells me I don't live on the side of a mountain, but I haven't convinced my legs yet ) but it usually dissipates around 11 (10 now?). I think once Winter comes, we'll see less of it; it's caused by the temperature changes at sunrise.

The cows are suspiciously silent about this....

Not in Adliswil... Seemed only the noisy ones were out yesterday.

Permanent feature until March depending on where you live... but I think we already have a thread about fog.

In Zurich, pretty much, yes.

You need to either gain altitude or get away from the lake basin in order to see sunshine. We woke up to glorious sunshine this morning: catching the train towards Zurich was like travelling into Mordor.

Funny, this was never mentioned in the tourist brochures. I'm going to need more hobbits.

back in a part of the US I used to live in (I won't say which so as not to divulge too much personal information that might incriminate me), the old wives' tale held that, the earlier in the season the fog started showing, and the longer in the day that it stayed, the worse the winter was going to be.

Smog is a feature of living in such a big city. I hear Northhampton has a similar problem.

In Binningen / Basel, we have it quite often and mostly the whole winter.

Where I live, they advertise it as virtually fog-free. There's a bit creeping around but basically it's blue skies and sunshine.

If I blow real hard, maybe I can blow that bit of fog back down to Zürich.

People always laughed at British fogs, but they last far longer here. In Murten, canton Fribourg, in 1990 we never saw the sun for the first six weeks of the year!

Which sea level? I grew up in Seattle and had many foggy days similar to here. This fog feels like home.

Because Seattle is between the sea (Puget Sound) and mountains (Olympic and Cascades), there's this lovely thing called inversion, which traps the air (fog/smog) below, sometimes for days on end. Parts of Switzerland suffer from a similar situation, except it's usually the combination of a big lake and the Alps.

Some years back after a particularly bad stretch of fog, we took a train to Interlaken. When the train got high enough to see the sun, the entire train full of people started clapping and cheering. Even those who grow up with the fog get tired of it after a while.

Where does the sun shine?

I used to live by the Ocean in LA, and sea fog was also a regular phenomenon - it occurs when the air temperature approaches and equals the dew point temperature.

As air temperatures move away from the dew point temperature in either direction, then the likelihood of fog diminishes - however vast areas of open water increase the occurrence.

Fog is the least of my worries. Once the temperature starts dropping below 0degC in the mornings, the car (parked outside) turns to a brick of ice every single day. Really thick layers of it. Ice scrapers simply don't cut it. This season I'm considering either a blowtorch or a pickaxe .

The Swiss believe London is nearly permanently swathed in swirling fog - mainly due to low budget Sherlock Holmes movies. The reality is Zurich has much more fog than London.

Worse though is 'high fog' or 'anti-cyclonic gloom'. I have known 5 weeks without a break in Zurich in November and December. This is where there is a temperature inversion and below the fog it can be -5° above it is +5° and sunny.

Watch out for trams with "Uetliberg Hell" signs on. This means the Uetliberg is above the fog and in the sunshine - along with everywhere else over 800 metres...

__________________

Fed up of smoking? 10 tips to quit in 10 days

This is what they want you, as a gullible foreigner to believe, Uetliburg is really the gateway to HELL. Stay away from the train.

The right coast. You'd get fog occasionally, but it would never last all day long or, even if it wanted to stick around, the constant breeze would blow it offshore.

i love the fog. here it collects and drifts around between night and the morning, but the sun usually zaps it away by midday.

Brilliant sunshine for us all weekend. Sunday morning up for a run (70mins) in the hills - then breakfast on the terrace overlooking the lake and mountains. It really wasn't the end of October where we were.

Driving back to Zurich at 0730 this morning was sobering