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Scout Scar with freezing fog,  rime-ice, refracted light

23/1/2019

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PictureRime-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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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books.)

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