Sea Smoke on Lake Superior

Winter has kicked in in northeastern Minnesota. There has been sea smoke on Lake Superior, and according to NOAA we’re sitting on two to eight inches of snow from the lake up to the top of the hills. Inland snow is up to 20 inches deep. Compared to 20 years ago, we’re falling short. Back then on the day that I write this, we had nearly uniform coverage to 40 inches with some areas showing 60 inches. But it is starting to feel like a real winter this year.

The recent -24°F temps here (-42°F was the lowest actual temp in northern Minnesota) caused lots of sea smoke and the surface temp of Lake Superior has dropped down near freezing along the shore. Maybe we’ll get ice this year. Unfortunately, the predicted winds for the next week could churn that water and bring warm water up from below. It seems like the winds won’t quit this year.

I’m deep into planning my 2026 photo workshops and getting year-end accounting done, so I have not been able to photograph as much as I’d like, but I made sure to get out for the cold temps. Those are my favorite to photograph. Lake Superior’s sea smoke makes everything so dreamy in winter.

I also opened up my annual November Online Lightroom Class. Register at the link.

I shot this one of a popular Lake Superior island at sunrise with at 24mm. I still think that 24mm is the best landscape focal length.

p.s. Did I mention that there is/was a wildfire in the Boundary Waters? They named it the Frigid Incident.

What is Sea Smoke?

One of my favorite parts about sub-0°F temps is that Lake Superior forms sea smoke. Sea smoke is like steam or fog. In order to get sea smoke, we need warm water and cold, dry air. For the warm water, the lake holds its heat. It remains open and warmer at the start of the winter. The big lake often doesn’t start to freeze, if it is going to freeze at all, until mid- to late-February. December and January often have air temps that drop below 0°F and the air has little humidity. When there are winds, that cold, dry air hits the water’s warm surface and causes it to evaporate. That evaporation turns into sea smoke.

While beautiful all that sea smoke has to go somewhere, and it often falls as lake effect snow in Michigan. If we’re lucky and the winds are blowing from the southwest, it can fall as lake effect in Minnesota. The downside to this is that evaporation causes the water levels to drop. That makes some of my favorite areas less appealing for photos, such as the above photo of The Tombolo area. I doesn’t look great from the normal spots.

For water levels, we’re at some of the lowest levels in years. Lake Superior is down six inches from last year at this time, and the big lake is expected to drop another two inches by the end of next month. Each inch of water on Lake Superior is about 551 billion gallons of water.

At any rate, the colder it is the more sea smoke and the prettier the pictures. At sunrise and sunset, the sea smoke seems to hold the colors of the sky and make them appear soft.

To emphasize that softness and help eliminate texture from the lake’s surface, I’ll often use a 5-stop ND filter. The ND filter cuts the amount of light that comes into the lens, so a long exposure is needed. That causes anything that moves to blur. You can see the effect in the opening photo. If there are moving trees or ice in the photo, the ND filter causes those to blur. In that case, I’ll often skip the ND. I do find that the colors of sunrise and sunset don’t seem to saturate the sea smoke as much when skipping the ND filter.

The pack ice along the shore in the above photo were moving on the waves, so I skipped the ND filter.

Whether or not I use a ND filter, I still love the sea smoke. It’s one of the reasons that I love going out for sunrises and sunsets on Lake Superior in winter. When it isn’t happening, I personally feel less motivated to get out.

I know I shouldn’t feel like that, because winter offers amazing scenery. The snow and ice minimizes texture, makes the scene simpler, and the remaining texture stands out more in the photo.

In the next photo, you can see that there is little sea smoke left because temps were warmer that day, but everything was coated in frost created by the sea smoke. I’ve walked by this area so many times thinking it was just too busy for my style. But the frost and dusting of snow reduced all the textures that usually don’t speak to me and the scene worked.

I’m crossing my fingers for more -10 to -30°F days. Hopefully, we get some this year. I’d like one more round with the sea smoke. I’d also love to see pack ice on the lake instead of just ice coming and going in the harbor.

Until next time

I think sea smoke is one of the great wonders of the world. Winter is so beautiful, and it happens most often in the winter. I hope you get a chance to see it sometime.

That’s it for this issue. I’ll see you again in two weeks.

Until then, check out this weird ice formation. I love it and wonder how it formed!