Why is it that sometimes smoke is wispy, like after you’ve blown out a candle and sometimes cloudy, like steam from an iron?

Question

Why is it that sometimes smoke is wispy, like after you’ve blown out a candle and sometimes cloudy, like steam from an iron?

In: 1

Answer 1

It often depends on the water content of the fuel. A candle burns paraffin, there’s no water. But often the fire is using much of its energy to dry out the moisture content of the fuel before the fuel will burn. Think about adding green branches to a fire and getting smoke. A lot of that smoke is actually steam.