Is there a oil field near by that is being steam flooded.
I saw this same type thing years ago when a old improperly plugged oil well was venting steam from the local steam flooding of a oil field in the
bakersfield calif area.
I'm pretty sure these steam plumes are common for fault line areas that are edges of plate tectonics. i live new the new madrid fault and we've been
getting alot of earth quakes lately. We had one last month that was 4.8 and i'm in central arkansas and we can feel those even here about 100+ miles
away.
It could be steam from hot springs. I use to go to Desert Hot Springs and there are hot springs in the area. It could be just geothermic. Palm Springs
is south of Desert Hot springs. I use to live north of the area and went through there a lot.