One of Mother Nature’s most beautiful gifts to us is the different colors that she provides all year round. In the spring it is the newly opened blossoms on the trees and flowers coming out of the brown earth. In the summer it’s the wide range of fruits and vegetables that we get to enjoy in our gardens. The fall is simply “…..a second spring, when every leaf is a flower.” (Albert Camus). Winter brings white of the snow and of course the beautiful artistry of frost. But, where does this frost come from and how does it make the beautiful patterns we enjoy looking at so much?
==Frosted Window Panes==
There are three basic types of frost that can be seen. The most common one is the one that you see on your car windows in the mornings. Yes the cold wet stuff that you have to scrape off the car so that you can see out the windows safely. If you have some extra time one morning, just sit in your car with the defroster on and while you are waiting for it to do its job look closely at the frost. You will notice that there are beautiful patterns in the frost that an artist would be jealous of. You can see frost spines, ferns and patterns in the frost created by the grooves and imperfections in the glass itself or debris on the glass. Also known as Fern Frost it is not strictly limited to windshields, it also appears on window panes in older buildings.
Fern Frost is created in a three step process. First, the air outside has to be cold enough to make the glass cold. Second, if there is moisture in the air, tiny drops of dew will freeze on to the cold glass. Finally, more and more moisture will freeze on top of the frozen dew and you have a layer of Fern Frost.
==A Frosty Wind==
When you take a mix of very low temperatures, moisture in the air and a cold winter wind, you have the perfect recipe for Rime Frost. Rime Frost is the frost that sticks gently to car antennas, mailbox flags, flowers, leaves, basically anything that it can stick around the edge of. It is soft and adds a white wintery addition to the outside.
==A Little Warmer Please==
Hoar Frost is the final type of frost and it is almost exactly like the Rime Frost. The only differences are that the Hoar Frost occurs at a higher freezing temperature, whereas the Rime Frost requires extremely low temperatures to form. Hoar Frost is also spiky fingers of frost not the soft gently icing that the Rime Frost creates.
Hoar Frost usually forms when moisture from the air touches a surface that is colder then itself and it instantly freezes. More moisture will pass by and instantly freeze to what is already frozen creating the spiky fingers that Hoar Frost is identified by. This type of frost is most commonly found when the temperature is closer to the freezing point.
