Thursday
Jan032008
Extreme Hoarfrost
Thursday, January 3, 2008 at 9:13PM 
This is about the hoariest frost I’ve ever seen.* Somewhere beneath the intricate befrosting is a scrubby pine tree.
Hoarfrost is the build up of ornate ice crystals on twigs, tree branches, grass and other vegetation. It’s like the cold weather twin to summertime dew. When the temperature of the air cools to below the dewpoint, you’ll get dew if it’s warm or hoarfrost if it’s cold. Or, more precisely, when the dewpoint is above freezing, the condensation formed when the air temperature is less than the dewpoint will be dew; but when the dewpoint is below freezing, look for the feathers, needles, or spines of hoarfrost.
The word hoarfrost is made from compounding hoar, which means “grey or white haired”, and frost, which means—well—“frost.” And it does look a like hairy white frost, especially when it forms feathery tips.
Hoarfrost is an old word, too. My very large and very heavy Oxford English Dictionary has a 1290 quote from an English legend that says, “De hore-forst cometh wane it is so cold it froeseth a-nygt…” You’ll find it used in the Cloverdale Bible (1535), in Psalm 147:16:
He geuth snowe like woll, & scatereth y horefrost like ashes.
The King James version used hoarfrost in that verse as well, and the recent English Standard Version says this:
He gives snow like wool;
he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
And there you have it, the last word on hoarfrost: It is God who scatters it and turns scraggly scrubs into a bejewelled beauties.
*Photo by oldest son, taken last year while caribou hunting up the Dempster Highway. It’s the Ogilvie range you see in the background. That’s typical winter light, since the sun always stays low on the horizon.
Reader Comments (13)
A rugged beauty, Rebecca. Thanks for the picture. I'm reminded how "soft" we have it here in the not-so-nearly-frozen land of southern Minnesota. After close to 12" inches of snow since the first part of December, we're now supposed to get rain over this coming weekend... in January! I'd rather have hoarfrost.
I've never heard of hoarfrost before, or took notice of it when I read that Psalm. What an amazing picture!
We've had a very delicate hoarfrost several times this year--very unusual.
Last weekend, we noticed it on the way to church, but it was spotty. Some areas were hoarfrosty and right down the road there would be none at all. Other areas it seemed as though it only settled on the pines, but not the hardwoods. One area it would be on the lower bushes and undergrowth but not on the tops of the trees and just the opposite a little farther on.
I imagined hoarfrost fairies scattering it behind them as they chased and played in and out of the trees.
Fanciful, I know, but hoarfrost is very magical looking, isn't it?
It's been a long time since I've seen hoarfrost - at least 10 years, or when I moved to Texas from Alaska! Simply beautiful...thanks for sharing with us.
How beautiful, but I'd never heard of that before--probably because I was born and raised so far south!! :-)
Sometimes we have a white fog of ice crystals that forms on surfaces a bit like hoarfrost. It is called Pogonip, which comes from a Shoshone or Paiute word for ice cloud, or white death. It is very beautiful. We don't see it very often, but when we do, it looks like a fairy land of icy fog. It was called white death because breathing in the ice crystals could be eventually harmful.
Sorry. Let me clarify. Pogonip is a fog and it falls on surfaces and covers them in a sort of hoarfrost.
Beautiful! We have them occasionally and they are so brilliant - every branch shines.
Whoa! Thanks for the picture and the description and the reference in the Bible. Very cool lesson with visuals. I love it...
I have never seen such a thing! Thanks for sharing a picture.
I've never seen hoarfrost either. What a beautiful area you live in!
I love your hoarfrost picture and the interesting article! Hoarfrost reminds me of manna. Manna is actually likened to frost when it's described in Exodus 16:14.
Beautiful Rebecca. I've heard of hoarfrost but never seen one - your photo is a first for me.