Weather lesson

Stephen started talking about weather in our last blog so it seems appropriate that I continue the theme.  I've been trying to post this ever since I arrived in the UK (Dec 8) but I've had difficulty with the computer. This may be a couple of weeks old, but I thought I would go ahead and publish it.

I was fortunate on my current trip to the UK to arrive on one of the coldest nights in Midland history.  Why do I say "fortunate"?  Because of the unique weather situation, I was able to witness an incredible winter wonderland as I took my bus trip from London to Cheltenham.

Here are some photos of the English countryside, most of which were taken through the bus window:

It looks as if there has been a snowfall, but in reality, it's a "hoar frost".  Here's where the weather lesson comes into play.  I referred to the internet for a proper definition of this phenomenon.

The definition from Cambridge advanced dictionary is as follows:

"a white layer of pieces of ice-like needles which forms on objects outside when it is very cold."

  

That definition seemed somewhat simple so I went to a more tecnical source (Arctic Climatology and Meterology)  and came up with this:

Hoar Frost: A deposit of interlocking ice chrystals (hoar chrystal) formed by direct sublimation on objects, usually  those of small diameter freely exposed to the air, such as tree branches, plant stems and leaf edges, wires, poles, etc., which surface is sufficiently cooled, mostly by nocturnal radiation, to cause the direct sumblimation of the water vapor contained in the ambient air.

Well, maybe that's a little too complex.  Bottom line: hoar frost = lots of kodak moments. (see web photos below)

None of my photos were as good as the ones above, but here's one more anyway.