It’s a common winter scene: tree branches, powerlines, and fences coated in ice and snow.
These picturesque displays are often the result of ice rime or hoarfrost, winter phenomena that occur in very specific conditions.
Captured by Michelle Young in Western Bay, NL, on March 9, 2010.
“Rime ice forms on cold days and nights when the atmosphere is calm,” explains Kelly Sonnenburg, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. “Water droplets freeze on surfaces, creating needle-like structures that can sometimes grow in strange ways, depending on the wind direction.”
Rime ice captured in Fort Frances, Ont., on Dec. 29, 2023 (Anika Beaudry, The Weather Network)
“Hoarfrost forms in a somewhat similar way but doesn’t require as much moisture. Water vapour molecules contact a sub-freezing surface and bypass the liquid stage, forming fluffy, light, solid ice crystals on the surface.”
(Graphic displays how hoarfrost develops)
While the accumulation of ice and snow can be beautiful, it can also lead to some damage as it weighs down branches and powerlines.
Multiple days of fog and freezing fog on the central Prairies in early December 2018 resulted in more than 30,000 calls from Saskatchewan residents, reporting power outages.
Rime ice in Calgary, Alberta on Nov. 28, 2024. (Connor O’Donovan/The Weather Network)
Rime ice in Calgary, Alberta on Nov. 28, 2024. (Connor O’Donovan/The Weather Network)
Rime ice in Calgary, Alberta on Nov. 28, 2024. (Connor O’Donovan/The Weather Network)
Rime ice captured on Dec. 29, 2023, in Fort Frances, Ont. (Anika Beaudry/The Weather Network)
Captured by Jeff Wizniak in Saskatoon, Sask. on Dec. 31, 2014.
Captured by Carole-Anne Oikawa in Lethbridge, Alta., on Jan. 9, 2018.
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