“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” is not always true here in coastal Maine. Below you’ll see sea smoke in Great Cove and Eggemoggin Reach at sunset last night, looking like the beginning of hell freezing over.
The smoke was wafting up from the water and being swept south by gusts of over 30 miles per hour from the North. The ambient temperature then was minus 7 (F) degrees with a wind chill to humans of minus 27, and the water temperature was about 40. Here’ how it looked in Naskeag Harbor at dusk yesterday:
Sea smoke is an atmospheric reaction between very cold winds flowing over significantly warmer (albeit not warm) water surfaces that evaporate into crystals during the process. If there were no significant wind, some of the water surface probably would start to freeze into pancake ice.
It got colder here overnight. As I write at 7 a.m. today, the recorded ambient temperature is minus 12, with a wind chill of minus 37, and wind gusts of up to 39 miles per hour from the Northwest. It’s not going to be a day for a walk along the coast. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 3, 2026.)