A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1367 entries
sea smoke
Sea smoke is fog that rises off open water in wisps and columns when very cold air moves over much warmer water. The water evaporates directly into air that cannot hold it and it condenses immediately, so the fog forms at the surface and streams upward, which is the reverse of sea fog and looks entirely different.
Etymology
The English name is exactly what it looks like. The technical term is steam fog or evaporation fog, and in polar contexts it is frost smoke. Arctic usage distinguishes it further, since sea smoke over a lead in the ice is visible for miles and is how open water is located from a distance.
Notes
It needs a large temperature difference, generally around twenty degrees or more, which is why it is a phenomenon of very cold mornings on unfrozen water: harbors, lakes in late autumn, and leads in sea ice. It rises in distinct columns that lean and twist with the wind, sometimes into vertical whirls a few feet high called steam devils.