White on trees

 

Snow is white—which is really just to say, it is the same colour as the light source.

But, white on a tree does not require snow—frost is white; so is rime. We have had extensive rime on mountain slopes of late.

First some snow: ice crystals that form in clouds far above the surface and then fall only to pile up on the ground and trees. This picture was taken Sunday morning after a heavy wet snow began bringing down the odd tree.

This shows rime on the trees (well, maybe also a bit of frost). The cloud contains supercooled water drops which collide with trees, freeze on contact, and coat the trees with ice—the rime.

A characteristic of rime is that it only coats those things that are imbedded in the cloud, or fog. The rime coating the trees in a band was caused by a thin cloud against the mountain. Snow can be seen through the clearings.

Being white, snow has the colour of the light source: lit primarily by the setting Sun, it appears pinkish; lit only by the darkening sky, it appears blueish.

This entry was posted in weather. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to White on trees

  1. pamella says:

    Rime is sublime.

Comments are closed.