A steam devil? That’s an extremely rare phenomenon.
It was captured by Mike Busch in the waters off Shirley in the State of New York.
Photographer Mike Busch published on his Facebook Page ‘Great South Bay Images’ an amazing picture of what he first called a Sea Smoke Vortex.
After asking his follower what was this mysterious swirling column over a foggy sea, they finally came to the conclusion that the tornado-like phenomenon was in fact an extremely rare ‘Steam Devil’.
These phenomena have only been reported and studied since the 1970s.
According to Wikipedia:”A steam devil is a small, weak whirlwind over water (or sometimes wet land) that has drawn fog into the vortex, thus rendering it visible. They form over large lakes and oceans during cold air outbreaks while the water is still relatively warm, and can be an important mechanism in vertically transporting moisture. Smaller steam devils and steam whirls can form over geyser basins even in warm weather because of the very high water temperatures.”
Watch more pictures by photographer Mike Busch published on his Facebook Page ‘Great South Bay Images’
Here an example of a fire devil.
