Steam Devils Have Been Forming Over Texas Lakes During Artic Blast

(Cedar Creek Lake, Texas) - This current artic blast over East Texas has been brutal. The cold seeps into your bones. The ice has made driving near impossible. The snow on top of the ice has made for a pretty scene.

What's even cooler about this artic blast is that it allowed for us to witness a rare weather phenomenon, steam devil. These look like a tornado, which we are very familiar with, but are completely harmless. They are cool looking and many videos have been captured of them over the weekend.

Steam Devils Forming Over Texas Lakes

To be Captain Obvious, it's cold outside. Luckily, we only have about 36 hours of constant below freezing temperatures to deal with. We may see some thawing on the grass and from our roofs with the sun today but the roads will stay frozen. Temperatures won't get above freezing either.

Even with the extreme cold temperatures, the water in our lakes isn't cold enough to freeze. Because of that temperature difference, we have been seeing a weather phenomenon called steam devil. They look like a tornado but are completely harmless.

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A Steam Devil was Seen Over an East Texas Lake

A steam devil, or steamnado, can form over a warm body of water that comes in contact with extremely cold air (weather.com). Similar to how a tornado forms, a vortex will form when this warm water and cold air meet, forms a fog, and begins to spin into the air. These twisters are completely harmless and won't cause any damage if they come onto land.

They're a really cool phenomenon that we can only see in this type of weather. Luckily, we don't this kind of weather very often.

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