It ain't hoar frost . . .
 

. . . but, rather it's a phenomenon called rime ice, leading to some breathtaking scenery. For the past several nights here in Northcentral Wisconsin and in many areas of the Great Lakes region we've experienced dense fog during the night and early morning hours. This has resulted in almost every branch and every little twig of every tree and virtually everything exposed to be covered in rime ice. It is exceedingly beautiful and a Winter Wonderland out here right now in the Upper Midwest.

Rime ice often happens in areas of dense fog, like we have seen the past few nights. It is when supercooled water drops (in liquid form) in the air come in contact with a surface below freezing. Those liquid water droplets then freeze on contact.

Hoar frost is similar to dew and happens on cold and clear nights. This is when water vapor (which is a gas) freezes onto a below-freezing surface. Because of this process, it actually skips the liquid phase in the deposition process.

I'm cold just looking at those pics!

Greg, it's quite a sight. We've had the same weather phenomena the last several days. On the prairie, the wind is a constant, and you can see the evidence of the night's wind each morning.

The observatory on Mt Washington gets incredible rime ice.

Very true Bob.

From our deer camp nearly fifty miles away from Mt Washington, in Vermont, with 10X binoculars we can see some weird shapes of rime ice formations in certain conditions.

This is NOT to out-do Greg’s and Garry’s beautiful pictures.



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Yikes!

Greg,
Very beautiful picture of the Basilica at Holy Hill. I have an aunt who is a religious sister who is a member of Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary who are based only a few miles away from Holy Hill in Waukesha. She is currently working for her order at there world headquarters in Vallender, Germany.

I love the way threads wander sometimes and the kinds of things I learn.

Those photos make me want to go watch Dr. Zhivago. Julie Christie was smokin' hot, by the way...

Why yes, yes she was!