What’s The White Vapor On Planes That Blows Into The Cabin?

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You may have read that some lawmakers in Tennessee have recently decided to use their constituents’ hard-earned tax money to write and pass a bill banning “intentional injection, release, or dispersion” of chemicals into the air. It broadly prohibits, “affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight.”

Of course, the critics were inspired by so-called “chemtrails” conspiracy theorists, who apparently don’t (or refuse to) know about contrails.

As of this writing, the residents of 6 other states (MN, NH, KY, PA, RI and SD) have equally undereducated Senators and Representatives using up their taxpayers’ funds to introduce similar bills. Although, as Jalopnik suggests, maybe there’s a silver lining in all those chemtrails:

There’s no factual basis for any of their claims, but if this is the one way we can get Republicans to care about air pollution, maybe it’s time to reach across the aisle and give them what they want. We’ll ban all chemtrails in exchange for stronger clean air laws in general and a massive investment in public transit. Deal?

Anyway, now, with summer on its way, I wonder if any of those conspiracy theorists are going to stay wondering about the vapor that (gasp!) comes right into the cabin of planes?

What IS that vapor?

I remember the first time I ever saw that white vapor coming down from the vents above me – you know the one I’m talking about, right? – I had no idea what it was and it scared the crap out of me. I’m not and never was a conspiracy theorist, but I was admittedly pretty young at the time…so I figured the plane was on fire and why wasn’t anyone doing anything about it?

(Note: yes, I know the video is upside down. My phone was doing weird stuff and capturing photos and videos backward. But really…it’s 6 seconds and it’s vapor. You get the gist, even if it is upside down)

Have you ever wondered what it is? Why it is? I did. So I went and found out…

It turns out it all has to do with water vapor and dew points and condensation and other stuff that I memorized in high school for a Science class and then promptly forgot when the test was over.

Essentially, the cabin was filled with warm, moist (humid) air from the outside (because the cabin door was open, because people were loading onto the plane) and the dew point (science class: the atmospheric temperature [varying according to pressure and humidity] below which water droplets begin to condense and dew can form) was close to the air temperature inside the plane. However, the air conditioner was on, so the temperature around the AC vents lowered the dew point, which caused the invisible water vapor (gas) condensation to turn into visible water droplets (liquid) – that’s the vapor/fog/etc. you’re seeing.

As the water droplets are blown further away from the AC vents, the air is once again warmer and the water vapor turns into a(n invisible) gas again. That’s why you usually only see the smoke/mist near the AC vents and not throughout the cabin (although that can happen too, if the cabin is that hot and humid and the AC is that cold).

Because the cabin air will be recirculated throughout the flight and the water separators in the AC system will take out most of the moisture from the air with time, you generally only see this phenomenon at the beginning of the flight, when the cabin door is open.

Oh, this generally only happens in the summertime, when the air outside is warm and (wait for it) moist (sorry not sorry, for those of you who don’t like that word).

Here’s a better video that I found on YouTube, and this one is even right-side up.

So yeah, that’s my (been a really long time since I took a science class) understanding of it. You can also click here, if you’d like, for what might be a better explanation.

And now you know 🙂

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary