Good point - those are the conditions where you do need a compass. In my experience, in the generally sunny American Southwest, I have had to resort to my compass for direction three times in sixty years (two of which were SAR missions).

This is in distinct contrast to boating/kayaking on open water. On one such occasion, just a short two hour paddle which was enlivened by the arrival of pea soup fog, I must have referred to my compass thirty times as I grouped back to the harbor.

One thing about compasses, they can be thrown off by objects you get too close to the needle, or by local ore deposits, etc. Climbing Orizaba in the early morning, our compass was off by 30 degrees, as shown by the North Star still shining brightly in the sky. For me, a clear sky, with sparkling stars, is the gold standard for direction finding, even when at sea....
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Geezer in Chief