Rare 'frost flowers' form on B.C. lake

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Lori Knowles

Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 10:29 AM - Elsa, is this your doing?

While these bizarre “frost flowers” may seem like something sprung from the imaginations of the creators of Disney’s “Frozen,” they’re actually a real – if very rare – phenomenon.

Weather Network viewer D’Arcy McLeod photographed these spiky blossoms on the surface of Shuswap Lake near Salmon Arm, British Columbia last week after an Arctic outflow caused temperatures to plummet well below zero.

Although it looks as though the frost crystals are clinging to some type of vegetation, they actually grew on their own along small cracks in the ice on the surface of the lake.

In order for frost flowers to form, the air above the surface of the ice must be colder than the ice itself (research has shown that a difference of at least 15 degrees Celsius is ideal). In these conditions, the surface ice “sublimates” – changes from a solid to a gas, releasing warmer, moist vapour into the colder air layer above, explains meteorologist Dayna Vettese.

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The vapour then condenses as it hits the cold air, forming the crystalline spikes known as hoar frost.

“You need conditions to be windless or else the supersaturated vapour layer gets mixed out,” says Vettese.

Frost flowers are most commonly found on young sea ice in the Arctic or very thin lake ice.

The conditions needed to form frost flowers are not unheard of in B.C., says meteorologist Tyler Hamilton.

“B.C. typically sees these conditions after a continental Arctic front passes through and winds calm. Cool air pools in the numerous valleys in the Okanagan and often you’ll see -20 to -25C especially during these ‘arctic outbreaks,’” he explains, noting Prince George saw -30C with this most recent cold snap.

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