Member-only story
ICE!
A Winter Wonderland!
One January morning, during our travel assignment, as we walk out of our hotel we see a wintry fairyland! Icicles glisten like diamonds on the ground: every surface—branches of trees & grass sparkle with quartz-like ice crystals. Wow! an eye-popping, luminous scene worthy of all the camera clicks.
At our coffee break, a knowledgeable resident of Madison explains how the beautiful winter landscape occurs.
The origin of the magic is a kind of frost called ‘rime ice.’
There are three types; soft rime, hard rime, and clear ice.
Rime ice:
It occurs when fog and freezing temperatures combine. Fog is water droplets suspended in the air. Rapid falling temperatures condense on frozen surfaces, creating the white needles of ice.
Rime ice always appears on the windward side of an object, like the tree branches.
Hoarfrost:
It makes trees & bushes look as if they have an older man’s long snowy beard.
