And now for something completely different.
A few nights ago, we had an unusual meteorological condition known as a hoar frost. “Hoar” is an old English adjective for showing signs of old age. Hoar frost coats objects with what appears to be white hair or whiskers so hence the name.
We are all familiar with dew which forms when the air becomes completely saturated—it cannot hold any more water at a given temperature and pressure—and water condenses out onto various objects such as the grass in our lawn. Hoar frost is not frozen dew. Hoar frost (and frost as well) is the direct sublimation (condensation) of water vapor to ice crystals at temperatures below freezing. Hoar frost is the growth of ice crystals that are larger than the frost ice crystals.
So below are a few pictures of hoar frost I thought you might enjoy. Click on each picture for a full screen view.
