For years I have inaccurately called these thick frost crystals, “hoar ice crystals,” but with more detailed study, I have found that they are “rime ice crystals.” ...

"These recent frosty days sent me on a hunt to remind myself once again of the difference between hoar frost and rime ice — as they tend to look virtually the same until you get an up-close look." ...

The frosty crystals form from the water droplets that make up fog. Those water droplets freeze onto the colder surfaces, such as bare branches, and produce rime ice. Hoar frost, on the other hand ...

Hoar frost is what we are most familiar with; it occurs on cold, clear nights and forms when water vapor freezes into ice crystals, coating plants and lawns with a sparkly sheen by sunrise.

Soft rime ice is just ice crystals that formed as supercool water froze when it hit a surface. These crystals are white or “milky,” not clear. They only form in the absence of wind.

THOUGH different processes are at command on the lecturer's table to illustrate the artificial formation of ice, none of them may be said to yield the very forms of ice-crystals that are observed ...

A 600-foot wide avalanche, caused by the fracture of a hidden layer of fragile ice crystals, was photographed on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, by a snowmobiler on Mt. Lola near Independence Lake, north of ...

Hoar frost spotted on a shaded and grassy spot of Council Crest Park in west Portland in late January 2025 (courtesy Josh Cozart) This uniquely named ice has an equally unique shape.

It happens as a surface frost or hoar is created when water vapor is deposited on the snow surface like dew and that vapor turns to ice, instead of liquid. It transforms the surface of the old ...