Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum How come I was able to see the evaporation?

I was traveling around to a friend's house and I saw water vapor coming off the lake. It was a cold day, around 15 Degrees F. How come I was able to see the vapor? I thought the air absorbs the water. I have been searching websites trying to find an answer, but I can't find any.

Warm (warmer than the air) water vapor rising up (due to it's warmth) condenses when it hits the cold air above the surface.
It soon disappears as it is absorbed by the cold dry air.

Technically, what you're seeing is condensing water vapor--after it evaporates from the surface, and before it evaporates into thin air.

So you're watching the vapor on its way up to the higher atmosphere where it will again condense into clouds.
Usually it's invisible, but if the conditions are right it can turn into fog ...or ephemeral fog-like wisps reaching up....

~K

The complete question isn't very trivial. In fact, you're seeing the vapor just because a density gradient near surface of fog droplet changes the path of (light) energy spreading and a it causes a dispersion. And energy is the only source of information about droplets...

But to explain, why just a density gradient deflects the path of energy is not quite easy problem at all. AWT assumes, people have evolved by many gradients of time dimension (a "mutations") - so they're sensitive to spatial gradients of time events density. They can see nothing - but a density gradients.

Another question is, why droplets are formed above water after all. But this is a different problem. It just illustrates, how every answer brings another questions, recursively.