It Was So Cold This Morning, The Ocean Was Smoking. Here’s Why That Happens

When it gets really, really cold in the winter, the ocean starts to do something strange. Here's what it looked like from the back of a boat in Maine this morning:

(sea) Smoke on the water this morning from r/Maine

From u/vreten on the r/Maine Subreddit this morning, you can see the ocean water smoking, as temperatures were in the low single digits, or even lower.

According to our very own researchers and professors at the University of Maine, here's what's actually going on when this happens:

"The “smoke” actually is water vapor that forms when really cold air moves over relatively warmer water and the thin boundary layer of warm air just above the surface. When the evaporating water rises, the cold air can only hold so much moisture, forcing the liquid to condense into fog."

See: you learn something new every day in Maine!