in lay person's terms? I agree it is a strange photo!

Due to some degree of ocean warming, these long streams of vapor are rising up off the ocean surface. They are transported and shaped by a series of air masses in continuous rotation that have been present across the northern half of the Pacific for the last several months. The vapor is stretched into streams as it is caught up in the rotation, often at the edge of the cell, and sort of like a fan belt cut loose while the engine is still running, flows in between the spiraling air masses. The masses of air change speed and placement from time to time but they never seem to dissipate.

At least, that's my uninformed take.

the engine is running doesn't sound good to me. I'm going to read up on this.

I don't know if they have one like it in other cities but this is my go-to weather source and I can actually understand a lot of it. Radar, sattelite, el nino/la nina, webcams, rain totals for CA, etc. Finding a lot of info with little effort suits me fine.

http://sandiegoweathercenter.blogspot.com/p/rain.html

We have to rely on regional info, everyone relies on the NWS data. The presentation is important. I just go to the source. It's possible that there are private satellite options for that area to gather data, would make sense, and they might be providing info for that site. It sure is something I'd use if I lived there.

This guy does a great job of explaining the details of weather systems. He's one of the few YTers who I must *slow down* because he talks so fast and goes through so many graphics--I usually have to watch stuff at 2x speed, lol.

I haven't watched all of this episode to see if he says much about that, but it's on his opening screen.