One night in eastern Nebraska*, after a couple of days of melting ice and cold nights, something quite interesting happened. A weak cold front moved through, and saturated air near the surface brought foggy but breezy conditions to our neighborhood. The following morning, I saw our trees covered in heavy frost.
Photo: Patricia Vollmer
Pretty isn’t it? See? I told you Mother Nature does some really beautiful things with water! That’s a plum tree on the left, an apple tree on the right.
Upon a closer look…
Photo: Patricia Vollmer
Photo: Patricia Vollmer
…I noticed the ice was forming into super-delicate long needles, all oriented in one direction.
Read more about whether this was rime ice or hoar frost over at our sister site, GeekMom.
