How Does This Happen! It's so cool - frost

chantal7 · Jan 13, 2008

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning, you see this frost-snow like stuff on the trees and everything outside. You get to see every crisp detail of the snow on the branches, and it's really easy to fall off. But I find it fascinating. It has only came around 3 times this year, so far. I got a chance to take some pictures of it. What do you guys think? Have you ever seen anything like this happen where you live?

Oh, and I've resized the pictures, hope it doesn't affect them TOO much.

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Antarctican · Jan 13, 2008

Nope, can't say I've seen that kind of ice formation around here. (The only place I've seen it is at the ski hills when they're making snow and the snow guns are aimed towards trees.) Makes for a good photo op. I really like the shot from afar, showing the wood fence with the snow covered ground and frost covered tree. And the shot right after it. What kind of tree is that, with the big thorns?

chantal7 · Jan 13, 2008

Antarctican said:
Nope, can't say I've seen that kind of ice formation around here. (The only place I've seen it is at the ski hills when they're making snow and the snow guns are aimed towards trees.) Makes for a good photo op. I really like the shot from afar, showing the wood fence with the snow covered ground and frost covered tree. And the shot right after it. What kind of tree is that, with the big thorns?

That's crazy ^^ When I was younger we used to kick the fences and watch all the snow fall off in some kind of wave, I was amused, and I still am! Haha!

Anyway, the tree you see with the thorns is a Rose bush.

I have a similar photo of the wood, tree and ground... hmmm... its from last year actually.

It has a lot more color to it as well. I didn't post it since it was an old pic from a year ago. But here are some older pictures of the same type of frost:

I like these ones a lot more, now that I look at them ... they have more color.

Antarctican · Jan 13, 2008

chantal7 said:
Anyway, the tree you see with the thorns is a Rose bush.

D'oh!! :blushing: It looked like it had looong thorns, like an inch or more, and they looked more straight than the curved thorns I'm used to seeing on rosebushes, so that confused me. My bad.

You got really good detail of the frost in that middle photo of the second set yu posted! You can even see the pattern on individual flakes/crystals...very cool!

BTW, when you post that many shots, it would help if you numbered them so people can more easily/specifically refer to them.

chantal7 · Jan 13, 2008

Antarctican said:
D'oh!! :blushing: It looked like it had looong thorns, like an inch or more, and they looked more straight than the curved thorns I'm used to seeing on rosebushes, so that confused me. My bad.

You got really good detail of the frost in that middle photo of the second set yu posted! You can even see the pattern on individual flakes/crystals...very cool!

BTW, when you post that many shots, it would help if you numbered them so people can more easily/specifically refer to them.

Oh crap, I guess I forgot to do that, whoops, sorry :blushing: I doubt I could edit it now. lol. Oh well. Lesson learned!

Hehe that's okay if it looked like it had long thorns ^^ it's hard to tell when it's not your picture, right?

It's a small rose bush, not very long thorned I guess. It's kind of funky though.

Thanks for your comment :thumbup:

Edit: Whoa, I guess I could edit it. Thought it wouldn't let me. lol. There, they're now numbered

m1a1fan · Jan 13, 2008

The Ice Crystal formations can be caused by Ice Fog. We get it here in Chicago when it gets EXTREMELY cold.

boomersgot3 · Jan 13, 2008

Sure is a beautiful sight to see!

Peanuts · Jan 13, 2008

Hoarfrost... such a natural beauty. You captured it well

chantal7 · Jan 13, 2008

Thank ya, folks!

It was pretty cold when it happened, too. But it's worth it!

Helen B · Jan 15, 2008

Beautiful and wondrous. I also know that as hoar frost. It's produced from molecules of water vapour (water as a gas) in the air freezing directly onto cold objects, hence the crystalline structure - the water vapour is deposited one molecule at a time.

Freezing fog usually, but not always, results in what I know as 'rime' - ie when the fog is made of water droplets (supercooled liquid water) that are below freezing point so when they hit a solid object they freeze almost instantaneously. This has less of a crystalline structure, if any, because it is made by tiny droplets of liquid water freezing very rapidly so they do not have time to align into big crystals.

Best,
Helen

chantal7 · Jan 15, 2008

Helen B said:
Beautiful and wondrous. I also know that as hoar frost. It's produced from molecules of water vapour (water as a gas) in the air freezing directly onto cold objects, hence the crystalline structure - the water vapour is deposited one molecule at a time.

Freezing fog usually, but not always, results in what I know as 'rime' - ie when the fog is made of water droplets (supercooled liquid water) that are below freezing point so when they hit a solid object they freeze almost instantaneously. This has less of a crystalline structure, if any, because it is made by tiny droplets of liquid water freezing very rapidly so they do not have time to align into big crystals.

Best,
Helen

Haha neat! That's interesting :thumbup: lol I guess I haven't learned anything about it. But I didn't bother to check online yet, wanted to see what you guys said

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Thanks for the information!

RyMo said:
Oh snap! You beat me to it.

Hoarfrost is right...had it in Ontario over the holidays.

...and I agree, great captures.

Haha don't you hate it when that happens? :wink:

Thanks !

karissa · Jan 15, 2008

To cool, thanks for the explanation Helen. I'm one of those annoying people that always asks things like how? and why? so I loved getting to hear how that works and why.

Cool pictures, never seen it before. The only real frost I see is annoying me on my car windshield in the morning making me late to work when I don't realize it got that cold. lol

chantal7 · Jan 15, 2008

karissa said:
To cool, thanks for the explanation Helen. I'm one of those annoying people that always asks things like how? and why? so I loved getting to hear how that works and why.

Cool pictures, never seen it before. The only real frost I see is annoying me on my car windshield in the morning making me late to work when I don't realize it got that cold. lol

Hahaha.... you should see my bedroom window! When it's cold out, it gets frosty:

And yes, the frost on your car is annoying, gotta agree :wink:

karissa · Jan 16, 2008

Having a bedroom window like that would only be cool if I didn't have to leave nice warm blankets at all.

Big Mike · Jan 16, 2008

We had a lot of hoar frost around here during the holidays. On X-mas day, there was even frosty trees and blue skies...that is a rare treat. I did get outside to shoot a few quick shots, but it was a busy day.

I went out a few days later and shot when it was very foggy...visibility down to around 100 feet.

Maybe someday I'll find time to process those shots :er: