the.com/dewfall
the slow surrender of air too full of itself, condensing its bravado onto your shoes
means The formation and settling of dew, especially in the cooling hours of evening when moisture condenses out of the air onto surfaces.
from A plain English compound of "dew" and "fall." "Dew" comes from Old English "dēaw," a word with deep Germanic roots (a cousin of Dutch "dauw" and German "Tau"). "Fall" carries the old sense of descending or coming down — the same notion behind "nightfall." So dewfall is literally the dew-coming-down, though dew doesn't truly fall like rain; it condenses in place. The name preserves an older, poetic way of seeing it: moisture quietly arriving with the dark, as if dropping from the sky.
- misleading name
- Dew rises from ground, doesn't fall from sky
- radiative cooling
- Surfaces lose heat skyward, chilling air to soak
- clear nights
- Cloudless skies make heaviest dew, not rain
- desert lifeline
- Some beetles harvest fog-dew on their own backs
- dew point
- The exact temperature where air gives up moisture
mount waialeale hawaii — receives 450 inches of annual rainfall creating constant dewfall, one of earth's wettest places