Incoherent Scribblings

Frosting: Not Just for Cake!

So, I will try not to make this just another boring weather report… Anyway, the last few days have been really cold and foggy here in the Munich area. You know that old saying about how the fog is so thick you could cut it with a knife? Yeah, that kind of fog.

Apparently, we have been under some sort of “inversion layer,” and as a consequence it has been colder and foggier down here at 500 meters than it has been up in the Alps. However, the most interesting aspect of this phenomenon is the layer of frost we have received.

It started out some days ago just as a general frost. The grass was white when I got up in the morning, but because of the fog and lack of sun, instead of melting off later in the day, it stuck around. Day after day the frost kept sticking and the result was the last two or three days everything is so covered in frost it looks like it snowed! (As far as I know, there was no snow reported here anyway.) Even if it did snow, however, the majority of the white stuff on the trees, the grass, and everything else is frost. You can tell it is frost, because if you look at it up close, you can see the crystals. It is really quite neat.

This morning it looked to be sunny and clear for the first time since the “frosting” occurred. Since it is still cold, the sun isn’t melting the frost off things too quickly and in the shade the frost is still quite thick. I have seen this type of “frosting” before, but seldom does it last in the sunshine, so before it warmed up too much, I thought I would take some pictures.

This is my favorite:

This is a fence behind our apartment building which was still in the shade at about noontime. Notice not only the long crystals, but also the fact that they are sticking out horizontally. Copyright and photo by Renée, the blondelibrarian.