In the last few days , icy air has broughtbelow - freezing temperaturesacross many parts of the US , including Chicago and Lake Michigan . There , masses noticed a very peculiar phenomenon : " Steam " appeared to form above the Chicago River and the lake . instigate many to expect ( maybe in the style of 4 Non Blondes ): what ’s lead on ?
The first thing to say is that it is not steam . Steam is water vaporization released when water is heat up . What you are seeing is indeed body of water vapor – but we ought to be donnish about its constitution . The phenomenon you are seeing is closer to determine one ’s breath on a cold mean solar day . You believably would n’t describe yourself as steaming .
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Smoke on the Water
watch the video recording ( or if you are in Chicago or somewhere with as cold weather and flowing pee ) , you are witness water evaporation digest over the surface of the pee . This has been antecedently calledsea smoke , but it is a lot more similar to fog than anything else .
It forms due to the temperature difference of opinion between the cold line and the tender water . At the bound between the two , a thin stratum of air forms , and in it there is some water vapor . Warm line rise , and the H2O vapor , abruptly in link with cold-blooded air , condenses into fog in wispy structures across rivers , seas , and lakes .
The honorable conditions hap when there is a bad divergence in temperature between the air and the water , like in Chicago in good order now . And it is easy when there ’s little wind so that the condensation has prison term to take place and it is not at once blown out .
A More Technical Science Lesson Is Dew
So why do you ask those conditions for the formation of ocean smoke ? That has to do with thedew point . The amount of water vapour need to impregnate a sure volume of air depends on the temperature . The cooler it is , the easier is to get to the dew point . Beyond that , water vapor starts to condense . At high altitude , we call this condensation cloud . At priming level , we call it fog .
Fog and ocean fume are related , but haze configuration in the opposite way – warm air over dusty water . Another exchangeable phenomenon to sea roll of tobacco is the sublimation of shabu when in direct sunlight .
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