Hoarfrost in the Midwest

[Larry J. Kosch]

We had foggy, below freezing conditions overnight in the Midwest, esp in Nebraska. I got up this morning to find our trees bedecked with hoarfrost. I think a few of us should take the opportunites for some great hoarfrost photos!! To find out how hoarfrost forms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost

Didn't have time to see the beauty of the trees and buildings due to darkness (hurry up Spring! ). I was busy clearing the icy frost that had specks of hoarfrost off my car's windshield. Suddenly I was hit by a "hoarfrost shower"!

Up until I started clearing the frost off my car's windshield, the winds were calm. Then a light breeze picked up from the south. That was enough to knock the hoarfrost off the big tree in my front yard. And I got showered with hoarfrost specks. Nice going, Mother Nature!!

If you should get some great hoarfrost pictures, by all means, please post them to this thread!! We need to enjoy the beauty of Winter and not be snowed under!!

 

[B Ozanne]

I'm not sure how rime fits into this, but both are made from the same thing.

Some extreme riming on Mount Washington:

To see the rest of my Mount Washington Journal click here:

http://www.easternlight.net/journals/mwn_index.htm

 

[Rick Schmidt]

Topeka hoarfrost

I grabbed a few shots this morning on my lunch break of the beautiful display of hoarfrost in Topeka. I wished I had time to take more closeups of the weeds and seed heads covered with this amazing winter spectacle.---Rick

 

[D. Hayes]

We had a bunch here in Wichita also that same day. It was really foggy that morning with a freezing fog alert. Looked like an Ansel Adam's world drive home from work. People thought it was snowing when it was just the frost breaking free from everything. I didn't have my camera with me since I was driving my wife's car. Speaking of driving, it made the roads a bit slick with the black ice. Good thing most of our roads are straight out here.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Here are some from here yesterday morning. I believe this is rime ice. It's all in how it forms and what I could gather seemed to indicate this was rime ice and not hoar frost, but like I really know. It was different than river steam frost. That was from more fresh steam and really cold air and was more flat shaped. This was from super cooled water droplets in fog and below freezing temps. This stuff falls off easy, but nothing like that other stuff would. No wind and that stuff just falls off. I should use the search function on here as there was a good discussion long ago between rime ice vs hoar frost.

I think there is some serious epic potential on this stuff between now and Tuesday afternoon somewhere around here.

 

[Paul Knightley]

Very nice pictures! Yes, this looks like rime ice, which is formed by deposition. Hoar frost forms from condensation, when a surface is below zero and below the dewpoint. I guess that hoar frost can form during rime formation too.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

The frost was widespread in south-central Wisconsin as well. These are my first weather related photos with my new Canon "Rebel" DSLR.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/wisconsinskies/WildWeather/10_01_17_Frost_02.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/wisconsinskies/WildWeather/10_01_17_Frost_03.jpg

 

[Scott Weberpal]

A few from around Whitewater, WI and the Kettle Moraine State Forest...

Didn't have quite the accumulation that Hollingshead had but still gorgeous none the less.

There was still some dense fog near the top of the Moraine.

 

[Terrence Cook]

Very nice pictures everyone, freezing fog is one of the more fascinating winter phenomena out there!

Here is what the scene looked like near Attica, IN.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Round 2: Monday morning:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/wisconsinskies/WildWeather/10_01_18_Frost_01.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/wisconsinskies/WildWeather/10_01_18_Frost_02.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/wisconsinskies/WildWeather/10_01_18_Frost_03.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/wisconsinskies/WildWeather/10_01_18_Frost_04.jpg

 

[Jared Farrer]

Yeah, this stuff was everywhere, I had my camera in the shop, and had to resort to filming. Walking around at 3-6 in the moring wasnt fun. But worth it with all the Rime ice everywhere. Its neat its straight sublimation. Fog or vapor turning directly to ice on whatever is in contact. It was fun cleaning it off my car at around six in the morning when it seemed to peak at least where I was.

Saw the huge freezing fog adv map on NWS it was phenomenal the size, states affected. Something like 5 states and the whole state at that! Wow. Have not ever seen that before.

I think it was advection fog moving in over cold ground and hanging out while the temps had swing back and forth through the diurnal process!

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

First this year were two biggest rime ice events I've ever seen. Now back to back mornings having the thickest hoar frost I've ever seen. These are from this morning. All it takes is some snow melt, a clear calm and cold night, and a low region dense fog forms in overnight. My antenna gathered an inch of it as I drove around this morning from 4:30 a.m. till 10 a.m. or so. It's kind of hard to get rid of fog for clear blue skies without losing the stuff too soon. And you have to look one or two specific directions to see it real white depending on the light wind direction overnight. Like it was light north last night so it was best looking south. But sun would be that direction so hard to get the blue sky shots. Seems the one decent farm scene you find always has crazy free roaming dogs to "great you". All those and power poles tend to limit composition ops. Seems there is nothing cool near me in western IA where it is flat. Hardly any trees unless you are in a town or on hills, neither ever have much of the rime ice or hoar frost.

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

Excellent Shots!!

As always, Mike has showed his excellent prowness as a photographer in areas other than storm chasing or cloud photography. I think someday when he wants to settle down, get married, etc. he will be able to open his own photography studio. And showcase the best photos from his storm chases, nature trips, night cloud shots, etc. Good Job Mike!!

 

[Christopher E. Kincaid]

Here are some shots from my freezing fog/hoarfrost chase for 2/13/10. All taken with my Tokie 11-16 on my old XTi.