Weather Watchers

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.