This time of year the mercury bobs up and down past the freezing point in a daily cycle.
The natural world is caught between states. During the day, the ice that formed through the night slides from the mountain ash berries and drips from the rooftops. The white grass becomes green again. Later in the day, the sun will set, the temperature will drop like a stone, and the cycle repeats itself. It’s the season of frost.
Frost is so much more than water freezing jaggedly all over the place, clouding up your windows and making your bike seat cold. It’s actually not water freezing at all, but water vapour going instantly from a gaseous state to a solid—no liquid phase involved—and this is how the beautiful patterns are formed. Frost crystals are Earth’s answer to the snowflakes that form on suspended dust particles high above in the clouds.
Niki Wilson
Special to the Fitzhugh
