text: The mysteries of Arctic sea smoke - Lifestyle* - seacoastonline.com - Portsmouth, NH
  The mysteries of Arctic sea smoke
  Driving along the seashore on Fortunes Rocks Road during one very chilly sunrise last week, Arctic sea smoke lay suspended over the ocean like wispy ghosts. It's been a while since this column covered that topic and now is an appropriate time as ever was to highlight this natural phenomenon.
  In plain and simple terms, sea smoke is moisture in the air which is colder than the water temperature and is suspended above the surface of the water as a fog. Sea smoke can occur on any water, be it ocean, pond, lake, or river, as long as the air temperature is colder.
  Right now the ocean water temperature along Fortunes Rocks is 37 degrees Fahrenheit. The air temperature above the warmer water on that morning was 11 below zero on Fahrenheit scale.
  The interesting part of sea smoke is the invisible factor that makes it happen.
  When the air layer above the water surface reaches 100 percent saturation, the continuous evaporation of moisture cannot be absorbed fast enough and re-condenses as a layer of fog sandwiched between the two layers. We see a similar phenomenon in the summer when the soil is warmer than the morning air.
  Within the Arctic sea smoke topic, we can see a more dramatic event called lake-effect (or ocean-effect) snow — when there are cold air winds sweeping across large bodies of water with warmer water temperatures. The moisture that re-condenses becomes snow.
  Perhaps the most well known occurrence is the lake-effect snow that falls on the lee side of the Great Lakes. During the winter it's not uncommon to hear reports of large amounts of snowfall along the shores of these large bodies of water.
  Tug Hill region of New York State is well known for its record snowfall, where it can reach depths of five or more feet. The regional record for the most snowfall in one day is six feet and five inches in the town of Montague. Lake-effect snow is definitely a notch up from Arctic sea smoke but there's yet another more intense level of this occurrence.
  Lake-effect blizzards are the extreme of lake-effect snow events. These blizzards come with more intense winds and can obliterate visibility to zero.
  Along with zero visibility another dangerous aspect of lake-effect blizzard is called thunder snow. This is a result of intense energy generated by the storm which is manifested by thunder with the possibility of lightning.