[Sarah]

When I was in Texas almost every restaurant had these water misters outside that people would crowd around.

I'm sure they are popular all around, but I had never seen them before.

Has anyone else encountered these? Where were you?

[Flame]

I think I know what you're talking about, but the only time I've ever seen them is at amusement parks. They have "cooling stations" that they turn on during the hot summer days that are just comprised of a bunch of fans with misters behind them that people and children would stand in front of to cool off. I'd never heard of them outside of that context though, but I suppose Texas is hotter than the middle of the East coast, haha.

[Freezair]

They're EXTREMELY common here in the Southwestern United States, especially during the summertime. Lots of people don't want to sit outside of a restaurant in desert summer heat (especially now, where we've been reaching record high temps around 110-115), but if a restaurant runs out of space indoors or if people are waiting outside, they don't have much choice. So they set up water misters as a way to keep people cool. Outdoor air conditioning, if you will.

It's a bit like those giant lamp-like heaters you see restaurants set up at times, but... in reverse.

[Mousen]

I've never seen these, but I guess England is cooler than most places (temperature-wise, at least.)

However, I do think I know what you're on about and I've encountered something similar. Utrecht in Holland has little jets of mist that come up from the floor in their town centre. Like this. Apparently they light them up sometimes? I have no idea why.

[Freezair]

The ones in the US tend to look like this, at least that I've seen:

Videoooo.

[ToxicShadow]

I can't recall if I have ever encountered them at a restaurant, as my family was always a very much eat at home sort, but my family used those misting wires when we went camping or occasionally during outside get togethers during the summer months.

When I was younger, a five-seven day trip to camp grounds happened EVERY summer with my extended family and friends of the family, a small reunion, if you will. And because we often had elderly (like my grandfather that cannot swim) or small tots, the misters were kind of a necessity. My dad often sat under them, too, since he's had chronic leg pain from an old motorcycle crash injury and a ruptured achilles tendon, so he wasn't always running around or swimming in the lake with everyone else.

[Silver]

Haha, I actually found this kind of interesting. I've seen something like that the few times I went to a big event during the summer in Chicago (somewhere it's quite cold for most of the year), but I've never seen it here in Australia (where is it warm to hot year round).

It's a bit like those giant lamp-like heaters you see restaurants set up at times, but... in reverse.

We do have a ton of these out here on the Gold Coast, though! Pretty much every restaurant has an outside area, and they all have these. I had to ask what they were, because we didn't have anything like it where I grew up.

[Mojave]

I live in East Texas and I've only ever seen them at Six Flags. But I can understand why some places are using them. Texas tends to ridiculously high humidity until you get over into West Texas. But either way it's hotter than Satan's underwear already and summer hasn't even really ramped up yet.

[Sarah]

I figured they would be more popular in warmer places lol.

The ones in Texas looked like the ones in Freezair's video, but the ones from Mousen Heath's picture looks cool as heck.

[zapdragon555]

I've never seen misters (I live in the southeast US) but I have seen those heaters/lamps/lanterns Freezie mentioned! These misters look super neat, though. :0

[CookingwiththeCobra]

Back when I lived in California some of the nicer restaurants had these but they rarely had them on because lots of hoards of homeless people would crowd around them so us citizens lost that privilege... lol.

[MillietheWarrior]

I live in California, and a LOT of dairies here use misters for their cows, as well as large fans to push the mist around and keep them cool. I very rarely see them used for people; I think they had a popular run, but generally, they're used on cattle. My neighbors had them for a while, but for some reason, misters just stopped being popular and being used. People didn't like being sweaty, wet, and feeling gross when going to restaurants.