Tuesday, February 4, 2020

A Rime Ice Paradise

We had a unique phenomena in Canaan last week: rime ice.

Rime ice happens when supercooled droplets freeze and attach to surfaces, often during windy conditions. Rime ice can be both soft and hard depending on the wind conditions. Hoarfrost is a similar phenomena and the two are often confused. Read more about rime ice (and hoarfrost) here.

Rime ice itself is relatively common in the Valley due to its high elevation, but what made this rime ice spectacular and unique was that it stuck around for 5-6 straight days and only built upon itself during that time!

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In the first days, there wasn't a lot of accumulation on the trees. Just enough to be pretty.
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Beech tree near the barn
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A veritable winter wonderland
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The following day during my commute home, the high elevation areas were remarkably beautiful
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My drive home took quite a bit longer because I drove super slow and stopped multiple times to take photos lol
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Cabin mountain and Weiss Knob rising above Canaan Valley
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Super zoomed cell photo of the horses in their field when I pulled in that night
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Mt Porte Crayon looking absolutely resplendent 
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Rime encrusted trees on one of my neighborhood roads
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Grif in the pasture. Look at the coated wire!
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Trees downhill of the barn that night while I mucked
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Absolutely incredible. And yes, they did begin breaking under the weight of the rime ice on this night.
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Rime ice buildup on my redbud tree out front
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The horses spent a significant amount of time in their stalls 
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But they really didn't seem to mind!
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It was better than having their tails and manes encrusted in rime ice lol
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So cool though!
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By Thursday, it was really caked on the trees.
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And so Kate and I headed out to ride and take photos in the magical wonderland we're lucky to call home
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I mean.... 
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Look at it...
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It's so damn magical!
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We were simply beside ourselves
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So beautiful
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I've got a shot almost identical to this during peak autumn foliage I need to pair up with this image...
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Starlight Lane Farm + a lonely Q
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Ran in to get the DSLR to try to get some shots.
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Dusky rime ice
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So um, that beech tree mentioned earlier in this post? Here it is at the end of the week.
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Soft rime where the winds weren't as intense. This little copse of trees is pretty protected from the winds
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Our tiki torch holders on the front porch however.... lol
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Stanimal and Kate taking a call for work 
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Kate and Stan strolling through the magical landscape
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Yeehaw!
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Photos really don't do justice.
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Especially because the light was waning fast at this point
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The exact moment Stan was allowed to turn and canter uphill hahaha
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Happy faces! Stanimal was a very spicy pepper this evening.
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Kate giggled the whole evening. How could you not?
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LOOK AT THAT LITTLE DOG. I LOVE HER.
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After capturing lots of photos of Kate and Stan, I had her snag a few of Grif and I.
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The light was seriously disappearing by this point
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But I'm still so grateful for photos to remember this beautiful ride
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Whatta good boy
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Lots of laughter
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And smiles
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He's the best boy.
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On Friday morning, the world was just as beautiful 
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And I wasted no time taking oodles of photos with my phone as we set up the mountain
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The conditions were great
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I'm so glad I nabbed the photos I did because by the afternoon everything fell away from the trees.
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But before it fell away, the buildup on branches was truly spectacular
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Looking south-southwest; you can really see how elevation played into the rime ice phenomena
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And east-southeast

Since Friday afternoon, all of the rime ice has fallen away. Temperatures have soared up into the 60s and now it's raining. The rime ice encrusted world was really incredible while it lasted!

10 comments:

  1. You live in a beautiful place.Just stunning.

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  2. This is just amazing. I love this, but do feel bad for the trees. Also, omg Taiga.😂

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  3. That's really cool. We get that here, but I don't do a good job of getting out and enjoying it like you do.

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  4. That is amazing, gorgeous photos! And so cold, I truly would not have enough clothes to go outside there.

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  5. gorgeous shots as always <3 <3 <3

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  6. I love these photos! We get ice like this in my area too, but I've never seen it last more than a day or two.

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