Notes from the North: Rime Ice and Birds

Well, it's weeks later, and I'm not up in the far northlands of Southcentral AK anymore (but instead am in the snowy middle-lands of the West), but indeed, the sun did come out the day after I took the ice and snow photos of my last post, and the trees, especially the deciduous trees, were covered with inch-plus-thick rime ice.

There were birds hanging out, in the birch trees especially, though we can't see them here—at least not clearly.

A tree partly in shadow.

Ice and snow on the back fence. Sparkling. Glittering.

Soft rime ice (from days of ice fog) on a shrubby tree.

Some ducks flew by overhead, as did a few ravens.

More trees!

Ice covered trees and icy cirrus clouds.

And here we can see a few of the birds.

These are Bohemian waxwings.

There were huge flocks of the waxwings hanging out in the tops of the birch trees, and until I got these close-ups, we didn't know what they were. These are fairly common in Southcentral, though I don't think I had seen them up there for a few years.

Notes from the North: Snow and Ice

It's been icy cold in the far northlands, with temperatures hovering not too far above zero for several days. The snow isn't really all that deep, only 8 inches in the back yard, but it's covering everything and hanging fairly heavy on the trees.

Snow on black spruce.

Looking upward, we can see ice crystals frozen on to the needles.

It was about 3°F when I was out taking these photos.

Brr!

Ice crystals on the twigs of a deciduous tree.

Ice is a mineral of the hexagonal crystal system. The crystals in this photo consist mostly of needles and plates, probably a combination of of soft rime ice and hoarfrost.

I'm hoping for some sun today so I can take more photos of the ice-laden trees.

Update from the Lake: Hardly Any Snow

It's true that there hasn't been hardly any snow around the west since sometime before Xmas; nevertheless, when I was at the lake most recently, I went walking around looking for signs of winter. I found a few.

I found frozen drops hanging on pine needles.

Ice crystals above a background of thin snow in the shadows.

More frozen drops.

More!

And more!

I became enamored of trying to get photos of the colored sparkles -- tiny prisms of light -- being given off by the frozen drops...

...and found I could really only do it with colored sparkles that were out of focus.

I could also see little glints and colored sparkles in the snow, but these were less spectacular and harder to photograph. Here's an explanation of the occurrence of these rainbow colors when seen in snow (with a guide on how to photograph them!).

De-Icing at the Anchorage Airport

Not sure I've ever seen this orange de-icing goop before, although maybe
I've only previously noticed de-icing operations at nighttime.

Orange de-icing fluid being sprayed over the snow-covered wing.

De-icing fluid dripping down the window from the top of the aircraft.

It turns out that the orange color indicates that a Type I de-icing fluid is being used.

And Even More Ice!

On our third snowy, icy hike in mid-January, we came across even more ice crystals near the lower, rocky section of our Water Canyon trail, where the creek had frozen almost solid.

Ice and hoarfrost in frozen creek bed, two boots for scale.

Needle ice crystals on ice, with rocks poking through,
located in the upper left of the first photo.

Ice blades or feathers are like petals in an icy rose,
from the lower right of the first photo.

Gradually, the weather changed, overall temperatures warmed, and the ice fog left. Since then, we've had warmer days, more snow, a little more ice on one or two mornings, and most recently, some very clear, sunny days. Some think that winter is over, but it's only mid-February, and I really doubt it.

Another Hike...More Ice

It was another icy, foggy morning, with hoarfrost covering everything in sight, and the Pogonip barely lifting from the ground.

Splotchy-pattered frost on the window, and the tree from the first photo beyond.

We, of course, headed up to Water Canyon as soon as the temperature warmed a bit. (The high for the day is listed at 13°F, so I'm not sure how much it warmed up, but it least it was warmer than the official low of -21°F!)

This time, rather than snowshoeing, we hiked, possibly using chains on our boots. This may have been the trip when our chains iced up, making walking awkward, and causing us to revert to just boots.

Partially frozen creek.

At the rocky area in the lower part, we found some unusual ice patterns, apparently caused by intermittent freezing and thawing of the creek.

Flow patterns in ice.

Intriguing flame-like structures in ice, with flowing water beneath.

Side trail into snow.

We came to point-three-mile canyon (which I have, in the past, erroneously called half-mile canyon), and didn't take the trail, although some intrepid snowshoer had been up and back at least once (a trail goes around the deadfall).

The creek and frozen waterfall at third-mile creek crossing was covered with ice thick enough to walk on. (Photo below: compare to this photo from my last post.)

I can see at least five layers of ice in this photo: the first is a broken one around the edge, the second is the one the surface hoarfrost is growing on.

Little, dark bubbles of air moving beneath the ice were almost the only clue that the creek wasn't frozen solid. A second clue was a faint gurgling sound.

A layer of needle and feather ice crystals (hoarfrost) on a thick, transparent layer of ice, with  less shapely ice and snow on a deeper, dark-looking layer of ice.

Sagebrush and shadows on frosted snow.

My feet finally froze, and we turned around.

Icy Snowshoeing in early January

It was early January, the inversion was still heavy and snow was thick enough for snowshoeing, so off we went, out of the city and into nearby Water Canyon.

Snow and aspens in Water Canyon.

The rocky area, not quite covered with snow and ice.

After trudging a ways up the canyon, we came to third-mile creek crossing, which had a narrow snow bridge packed across it's downstream side.

We stopped for a few photos.

Standing on the snow bridge, looking upstream at the small, frozen waterfall.

Closeup of the waterfall area, frozen and covered with hoarfrost.

Frost crystals were growing here and there across the iced-over creek, especially near the edges where feathery and leaf-like crystals were growing outward from the snow.

Frost crystals with snowshoe for scale. Crystals in the next photo are located in the left center of this photo.

Enlarged frost crystals, shaped like leaves or flower petals.

Hoar frost "leaves" and ice needles or spikes.

Where these frost crystals had grown upward from their ice base, they looked like flowers to us, but they are not the same as frost flowers (which is what we wanted to call them).

Delicate feathery ice around the edge of larger hoarfrost formations.

And finally, we looked off downstream at more snow, ice, and hoarfrost, and set off back down the canyon.

Kitty Ice Prints...

...or icy kitty prints?

I'm not much of a cat blogger, but I saw paw prints in the making the day before yesterday, when a couple kitties jumped up on the jeep right after it had been washed, leaving dusty prints all over the hood! The kitties were, apparently, interested in drinking water from the bowl-like indentations where the windshield wipers swivel, because all other water that afternoon was in the form of snow and ice.

The next morning, after an ice fog had partly lifted, the hood of my jeep looked like this:

Frozen cat prints on jeep hood.

Enlarged prints.

More prints.

More enlarged prints.

Little ice crystals comprise the frozen prints.

As Jim Lehane recently noted, ice is the solid, crystalline form of water. Ice crystals are hexagonal; the ones on my jeep were too small to examine without my hand lens — and I didn't stay outside long enough in the icy morning air for that!

Ice at Mindat.org
Ice at Webmineral.com
Is Water a Mineral? -- Is Ice a Mineral?