Bermuda residents watched a "strange batch of fog'' drift across the Island in 72 degree weather yesterday afternoon.

A Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist said: "It was definitely fog. We watched it roll across the Island from up here. Anytime it touched the land, it just disappeared. It was just a strange batch of fog. I've never seen anything like it,'' the meteorologist added.

Jason Hooper, 25, a construction worker who was working on the roof of a house in Devonshire, said: "It looked like smoke at first -- it came out of nowhere. You couldn't see anything.

"It came down really suddenly. You could see the cloud on top of the water.

I'm about two minutes away from Devonshire Bay and you couldn't see the whole of South Shore. I've never seen anything like it in my life.'' While the Bermuda Weather Service could not establish the exact weather phenomena, they said: "The type of fog occasionally observed over Bermuda is what is known as sea fog, or advection fog and may form when the sea temperature is cooler than the ambient air.'' The Weather spokesperson said if the sea cools the air near the surface, moisture may condense out and form an area of fog.

For most of the year, the sea surface temperature is warmer than the air over it, said the spokesperson.

"However, during the late winter months, when the ocean surface has had a long time to cool, fog may form and move through the local area.'' Meteorologist Mark Guishard last night told The Royal Gazette "these phenomena are usually transient, moved along by moderate surface breezes out of the south.

"Long-lasting periods of fog with poor visibility are very rare in Bermuda and as spring is now upon us we may not see much more fog over the Island this year.''