Nature
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A dense fog has descended on the state of Florida, which, according to locals, is accompanied by a strange smell. In an array of social media posts, residents of the Sunshine State have decried its unusual odor, with several claiming it is unlike any fog they have seen, or smelt, before.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.“I thought it was smoke at first, but it is fog. And it has a smell I cannot describe,” said one Reddit user in central Florida. “It smells kinda like a mixture of gasoline and rubber. I guess. Honestly, I cannot really describe it,” they added.
“This fog IS weird,” said another. “Smells off and doesn't really look like any fog I've seen in my 30 years living here.” Others spoke of a “chemical” scent that is “not a fog smell”.
So what exactly is going on? Though conspiracy theories – ranging from geoengineering to chemicals from manufacturing plants – surrounding the phenomenon are rife, it seems there is a much simpler explanation. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the fog is caused by “lingering sea fog moving onshore”.
Fog is a common occurrence in the state, and, as Megan Tollefsen, Coastal Hazards Program Leader at the NWS in Melbourne, told USA Today, conditions have been ripe for it recently.
"When you have just enough moisture present closer to the surface, this can make conditions even more favorable for fog development," she said. "Because conditions have been so favorable, we've seen these visibility reductions down to less than a mile plenty of times, and even down to the low of a quarter of a mile in some spots."
Fog forms when the Earth radiates infrared energy into the atmosphere on nights when there is little cloud cover, cooling the ground and the air right above it and causing water vapor to condense into tiny droplets. As per the NWS, this is the main mechanism for fog formation in South Florida, where fog is most common from late Fall to early Spring – aka right now.
It can also happen when warm, moist air from the "Gulf of America" – the Gulf of Mexico to everyone else – or the Atlantic Ocean moves over a cooler land surface.
From what we know so far, it seems this is no different from your regular fog. Addressing reports of particles seen in the mist, Tollefsen added: “If you shine, you know, any kind of light in the fog, what you’re actually seeing are the very, very small water droplets. They can reflect light [...] So that is likely what people are seeing.”
As for the smell, we can’t be sure of the cause, or indeed if the reports are accurate – but fortunately for any Floridians, it looks set to lift, with Tollefsen predicting a windy end to the week and “a bit of a pattern change, Thursday, Friday and into the weekend as well."
