What is "camanchaca"

n. A type of mist found on the west coast of South America by the Atacama Desert, which does not drop rain.

Camanchacas are cloud banks that form on the Chilean coast, by the Earth's driest desert, the Atacama Desert, and move inland. On the side of the mountains where these cloud banks form, the camanchaca is a dense fog that does not produce rain. The moisture that makes up the cloud measure between 1 and 40 microns across, too fine to form rain droplets.

Camanchaca is a lichenized genus of fungi in the family Roccellaceae.