Rime-ice on hawthorn A clear blue sky and a still morning. Beneath the moon, freezing fog had touched down on Scout Scar escarpment and hawthorn were white with rime-ice. Rime-ice so thick the grass was white, the limestone stippled white and last summer's flower-stems rose tall and white, their seed-heads like ice flowers. And mist in the upper reaches of the Lyth Valley was different too. Discrete columns of freezing fog were drifting over the valley. Several years ago I puzzled to see fog advancing until it swirled all about me, my head clear above a sea of freezing fog as temperatures plummeted.
Rime-ice transformed the hawthorns up on the exposed Scout Scar escarpment. To the south, a thick pall of mist hung over the Lyth Valley but the columns of freezing fog were to the north, and distinct in form. As I turned to look east I saw freezing fog drifting over the grass white with rime ice.
All morning the sun illuminated the snow-capped fells. And up on the escarpment it was strong enough to begin to melt the rime-ice so that droplets of ice and water twinkled amongst the hawthorn branches. If I align myself so the sun strikes the droplets I catch the colours of refracted light and it's magical. My images show starbursts of white light and blue droplets clinging to branches. Rime-ice on Scout Scar is rare, and it is ephemeral. The rime-ice lingers in places but the escarpment is in full sun and rapidly changes from white to grass-green. Refracted light shimmering in droplets on the branches of trees is a winter-special, when the sun is low in the sky. Elevation and alignment is critical. These hawthorn twig images show how rime-ice forms on the very tip of thorns and how there's an ice coating that renders the bushes white. It was late morning by the time I took these pictures and you can see the twigs are wet with ice-melt.
Compare rime-ice with hoar frost. See the effects of old snow and refreeze. Look in the blog archive for 14 t0 26 January 2013
Scherzo on a homophone
I spoke of rime-ice to a friend, who was puzzled. I didn't realise rime-ice is a homophone, you may hear alternative versions
Wry mice - mice with a quirky sense of humour
Rye mice - mice who infest the farmer's field of rye
or rime- ice, the freezing fog phenomenon
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