Hoarfrost doesn’t always mean snow

Depending on your perspective, it was either creepy or beautiful Tuesday morning in the Red River Valley.

The look of the landscape was thanks to hoarfrost, or the tiny, solid water vapor that crystallizes when the temperature is below freezing point on certain surfaces, such as tree branches and other vegetation.

“The warm temperatures last week put additional moisture into the lower atmosphere which turned into that fog and froze to those branches,” said Peter Rogers of the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks.

Rogers said there is no meteorological proof that hoarfrost is a precursor to heavy snow.

James R. Johnson is

a reporter at the

Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald,

which is owned by

Forum Communications Co.

Tags: local news, news, hoarfrost, cold, weather