Archives for: "January 2012"
Slush Fingering and Other Pond Patterns
January 19th, 2012Here in the Pacific Northwest, we just had our first snowfalls of the season. On the weekend, we had 1 – 2 inches. This was followed on Wednesday by what the Seattle Times newspaper was calling a “megastorm”. But in the end, most areas in the area got… more »
One Lone Crystal - 2012
January 16th, 2012This winter is turning out to be disappointing. We've had day after day of warm temperature, often barely dropping below freezing even in the evenings. What little snow we have gotten has been sloppy an d mixed with rain. Last weekend we finally had a… more »
Snow on a Freshly Frozen Pond
January 15th, 2012Back when I was doing post-doctoral work in Boulder, Colorado, Charlie Knight, the head of my lab, introduced me to strange ice phenomena. The most memorable one happened after the weather had been sub-zero for a few days and then we got some snow. When… more »
Seeing Things in the Frost
January 15th, 2012In looking at the Cloud Appreciation Society's website recently, I started wondering; if they can have so much fun finding clouds that resemble various objects, why can't we do that for frost patterns? Awhile back, I posted frost that looked like an eye… more »
Fun with windshield ice
January 11th, 2012In my last post, I pointed out that you can determine the crystal orientation in a film of ice by looking at hoar-frost that sprouts from its surface. Here's another way, but it only works if the ice is on glass. For example, here's ice on my… more »
Choppy waves
January 11th, 2012I thought this hoar frost pattern looked like rough seas. I see choppy, cusp-like waves down there. Not having any pictures of rough seas, I hopped in our bathtub and kicked my legs around to make waves. Perhaps you can see a little resemblance.… more »
