On foggy days why are we able to see a short distance in front of us but decreasingly so the farther ahead you look?

Question

On foggy days why are we able to see a short distance in front of us but decreasingly so the farther ahead you look?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

The simple answer is diffusion. The more water droplets there are for light to pass through, the more opportunity for light to be scattered, the more light is scattered the more opaque something looks. So less droplets close to your face means less light scattering, so slightly blurry, further away object have more room to scatter light and therefore are obscured.